I can’t remember another summer that sped by quite as fast as this one, even though some of those scorching hot, dry days seemed endless in themselves. But it’s already time again to finalize Student Activities Conferences schedules, collect the names of district chairs and academic meet directors, answer eligibility questions and all those others things that are part of a new academic year. Here’s hoping you have a great one!
We have mailed the Academic Coordinator’s Manual to all high schools, so if you serve as campus coordinator and haven’t received that packet, please check with your principal and the folks who sort the mail. If no one can locate it, email and let us know, but please look first.
The packet also contains an academic coordinator information form, although we’d prefer that you register online at www. uil.utexas.edu/academics. We recently sent an email reminder that our regional academics dates have been changed to April 13-14 and many of those emails were not deliverable. If you’re a coordinator and didn’t receive that message, it means that we’ve got an old, no longer used email address, or that you have never registered as a coordinator and we have no email for you, or your school’s server does not allow emails with multiple recipients. Whatever the reason, it’s important that we are able to reach you. Although we don’t send frequent emails, we do use them to notify you of any corrections, clarifications or other issues of importance.
The change of dates for regional academic meets has been posted on our Web site and published in the current C&CR and all academic materials. We realize this will create conflicts with other scheduled events for some schools and for some regional hosts. We’ll do the best we can to help resolve problems, but regional meet competition must occur during the scheduled week. The change was mandated by the need to avoid conflicts with TAKS testing.
General information about this fall’s Student Activities Conferences is posted on the UIL Web site. We’ll post the completed schedules as they are finalized. We are excited to be returning to Tyler Junior College and West Texas A&M University in Canyon and thrilled to be hosting at Texas A&M Corpus Christi this year. As always, a variety of workshops will be presented by the state contest directors, by hosting faculty and students and by experienced coaches from around the state. We look forward to seeing you, your academic coaches, directors, advisers and your student competitors at the conference nearest you. It’s fun, it’s free and it’s a great learning opportunity. The League has recently mailed to each high school principal a DVD to encourage and promote participation in UIL academic programs. It contains two delightful short videos, with students and coaches talking about the value of UIL academics. In the “UIL Participant” video, successful competitors and coaches speak of the numerous ways they have benefited from their participation in UIL, the fun that they had and the various academic and life skills they developed.
The “UIL Coach” clip includes testimonials from academic coaches, directors, advisors and students about how participating in UIL helps improve students’ academic success. Educators describe how UIL activities provide students the opportunity to improve tests scores and test-taking strategies, enhance skills such as analysis, problem solving and critical thinking and discover and fully develop their individual talents. They also speak of the rewarding learning experiences they have had as academic coaches.
We ask in the memo that principals make sure you are aware of and have access to this resource. Although some of you have such strong academic UIL programs that you don’t need assistance with recruiting, we hope for others it will be a useful resource in encouraging additional students and coaches to experience the benefits of participation.
Further Odds and Ends
We’d like to remind coordinators to make sure you have a signed and notarized Professional Acknowledgement Form on file for each of your academic coaches. It is not necessary to fill out this form annually. Once will do. However, it’s very important that all academic coaches review the form and their responsibilities each year, regardless of their coaching experience. Nothing is more disheartening than to have a young contestant disqualified because a coach failed to see that all students knew the rules for their events.
All district entries (CX, OAP and Spring Meet Academics) must be submitted online, as has been the case for several years now. Academic coordinators will be responsible for entering students from their campus in each of these meets and will need a UT EID to do so. EIDs and passwords from past years are still valid, unless the system alerts you that you need to change your password. There is a new Web site to help those of you who can’t remember your password or EID. District meet directors will find just a few updates in the online system for entering results, and we’ll send details when the system is open for you to set up your meet.
Finally, the Legislative Council has asked the academic staff to gather information and feedback about the points system for the Academic Spring Meet, including CX debate and One-Act Play. If you have a recommendation for changing the manner in which points are awarded, or if you feel that the system is fine as it is, please email your comments. The council and the academic committee will meet in October, and your comments on any aspect of the academic program are welcome.