Published:
September 11, 2025
Driving Communication Growth via Tech Website, Social Media & Email
Operations
In January 2025, we launched the new tech.utexas.edu website, which has steadily increased engagement as our content portfolio grows. Year-to-date, the site has attracted 72,000 new users, with August marking the highest session volume. That month, we introduced the UT.AI Hub and UT Spark, which were promoted via LinkedIn, email, and news articles driving notable engagement. We also executed 172 targeted email campaigns across key audiences, maintaining strong open and click-through rates. Since its launch in January 2025, the tech.utexas.edu website has attracted 72,000 new users and 73,000 active users, with top-performing pages including Home, News, and Artificial Intelligence. August marked a peak in engagement, generating 9,429 sessions with an average engaged time of 48 seconds and a 46% scroll depth. Traffic was concentrated on key pages such as Homepage, Artificial Intelligence, Tech for Students, Official Student Email, and UT Spark, with desktop views leading at 6,354 sessions and mobile at 2,777.
On LinkedIn, our communications efforts delivered 21,826 impressions since September 2024, achieving a strong 9.8% engagement rate. We gained 51 new followers in August, bringing our total to 221 and reflecting notable growth. Complementing our web and social media presence, we executed 172 email campaigns targeting key audiences, consistently achieving high open rates—askUS/eBITS (48%), UT Works (46%), and ET/CIO (48%)—demonstrating the effectiveness of our multi-channel strategy. The tech website and social media channels continue to gain traction in FY 2024–2025.
August engagement reflects strategic alignment with UT Spark priorities and the UT.AI Hub launch at the semester’s start, supporting the university’s goal of integrating AI across academic and operational domains. This focus drove increased traffic to AI-related content and boosted LinkedIn interactions with our target audiences. Structured email campaigns further amplified reach and ensured timely delivery of critical updates to students, faculty, and staff. View the communications KPI overview.
492,428 Unique Wired Devices Connected to the Campus Network
Infrastructure
During the Spring 2025 semester, 492,428 unique wireless devices and 155,331 unique wired devices connected to the campus network. A total of over 7.6 petabytes of data traversed the network inbound from the Internet and over 3 petabytes outbound. During the fiscal year, the team completed several large equipment lifecycle projects to improve capability and reduce risk. Across the fiscal year, 1,245 network switches, 250 outdoor wireless access points, and 286 video cameras were life-cycled. The network within the University Data Center was completely refreshed. All of the analog gateway infrastructure that supports life safety and other high-availability phone lines (2,300+) was updated on both the Main and Pickle Research campuses.
This past year marked the first full year that the Enterprise Technology team has been running the Mutare Voice Traffic Filter. Based on feedback from customers, the service was implemented to reduce unwanted calls (robocalls, spam, call spoofing abuse). Over the past six months, 254K of a total 1.6M inbound calls were rejected as unwanted. During that time, we have not received any reports that legitimate calls were erroneously blocked. Over that same six-month period, the tool also vetted 750K outbound calls to detect instances of toll fraud or phone hacking. Our building security systems average roughly 100,000 badge reads per day and manage 1 petabyte—or almost 800,000 hours—of recorded video.
Canvas Training and Support Expands Faculty Adoption and Access
Enterprise Learning Technology
The Enterprise Learning Technology team delivered training and support for the university-wide learning management system, Canvas, and facilitated increased adoption of the Simple Syllabus tool to assist faculty with fulfilling the HB 2504 requirement. Through roadshows, workshops, consultations, and office hours, the team engaged 1,145 participants during the year, including 438 in workshops and 232 in consults. Additionally, 27 new sub-account administrators were on-boarded to enhance support for colleges, schools, and units (CSUs). These efforts drive broader adoption and more effective use of Canvas across the university.
During the Simple Syllabus outreach initiative, the team carried out targeted consultations with eight CSUs to develop customized CSU templates for their courses. This approach led to an adoption rate increase of over 300%. The Enterprise Learning Technology team also supports faculty and instructional staff through participation in new faculty orientations and showcases. Together, these initiatives and outreach strengthen instructional support and improve the faculty and student experience with Canvas.
M365 Copilot rollout drives AI literacy and productivity across UT Community
Enterprise Learning Technology
Enterprise Technology and its training partner, i2e, provided M365 Copilot training to over 2400 users across the University via webinars, in-person workshops, and executive briefings. The training introduced prompt writing, agent setup, and productivity use cases, with tailored tracks for academic, operational, and executive audiences. The comprehensive training program has played a pivotal role in supporting adoption of M365 Copilot throughout the University community. And, as more users have embraced Copilot’s capabilities, there has been a measurable acceleration in productivity gains.
Surveyed training attendees reported saving 1–2 hours daily, with 50 percent citing immediate time savings. If half of our Copilot users reclaim only 2 hours per week for higher-value tasks, the University is saving an estimated $4.25 million annually in employee salaries. As part of the UT.AI initiative to drive innovation and enhance productivity, M365 Copilot brings generative AI into the hands of our academic community. By transforming how faculty and staff work, Copilot empowers them to concentrate more fully on the university’s core mission: delivering high-impact education, advancing pioneering research, and enriching the academic experience for all. Visit the M365 Copilot page.
2024–2025 Year in Review: Digital Accessibility Center Scales Services and Advances Institutional Accessibility
Enterprise Learning Technology
The Digital Accessibility Center (DAC) completed its first full academic year with sustained service growth and platform testing initiatives. During the 2024–2025 academic year, the Document Accessibility Team addressed the accessibility of 6,175 pages of material, while the Audio/Video Accessibility Team processed 2,442 files to add captions or create transcripts. These efforts ensured access to academic and administrative resources across the university’s digital ecosystem.
The DAC also conducted accessibility testing for AI platforms and scanned the accessibility of websites across the university. Launched in Fall 2024 to consolidate accessibility services, the DAC has become a central resource for improving institutional accessibility, supporting faculty and students, and reducing barriers in the university’s digital environment.
Cross-Unit Collaboration and Governance: Digital Accessibility Policy Nears Final Adoption
Enterprise Learning Technology
A major milestone in 2024–2025 was the creation and advancement of the University of Texas at Austin’s first comprehensive Digital Accessibility Policy, designed to formalize and strengthen the institution’s commitment to accessible digital practices. Developed collaboratively by the Digital Accessibility Center (DAC), the Office of Institutional Accessibility and Accommodation (IAA), and the Digital Accessibility Steering Committee, the policy outlines standards for all digital content, applications, and platforms used for university business including websites, documents, software, multimedia, and instructional materials. It aligns with federal ADA Title II regulations, meeting WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance, and includes procedures for exception review, procurement alignment, and ongoing evaluation. The policy has cleared final legal review and is currently awaiting signature from the President’s Office. Once approved, it will be published on the university’s Handbook of Operating Procedures site and integrated into Enterprise Technology resources.
Enterprise Learning Technology Delivers Personalized Support for Teaching Tool Integrations
Enterprise Learning Technology
The Enterprise Learning Technology team acts as the first line of engagement for faculty and vendors, managing complex external tool integrations in Canvas through personalized collaboration with faculty and vendors. This support ensures instructors can adopt the right tools with confidence while maintaining technical reliability and compliance. To support instructors, the team managed 271 tool integrations. Collaboration with vendors was crucial; the team coordinated 76 vendor interactions and 156 instructor engagements to ensure seamless implementation and provide sustained support for faculty.
External teaching tool integrations require extensive communication and coordination among instructors, vendors, and Enterprise Technology. The Enterprise Learning Technology team manages this process end-to-end—capturing integration requirements, consulting on tool selection, resolving technical issues, and maintaining vendor relationships. By providing this personalized support, the team continues to improve and streamline the instructional tool integration process while reducing IT overhead and risk.
AI Studio Expands AI Innovation, Access, and Engagement Across Campus and UT System
Enterprise Learning Technology
Over the past year, the AI Studio has established itself as the central hub for artificial intelligence at the university. The team successfully launched UT Spark (3000+ users as of 09/05/25), developed and deployed the UT.AI Gateway for API-driven research, teaching, and learning, and built custom AI agents in Copilot Studio, UT Spark, and ChatGPT Enterprise for multiple departments. The AI Studio has also expanded its role beyond campus, collaborating with other UT System schools to share best practices, making Anthropic services available system-wide, and supporting faculty, staff, and students with hands-on AI access and tools.
The AI Studio’s initiatives have increased student engagement through partnerships like sponsoring the Longhorn Developer organization, provided enterprise-grade AI services (ChatGPT Enterprise, Copilot, UT Spark) to thousands of UT users, and enabled secure, scalable API access for researchers, students, and instructors via Microsoft APIM. By creating a centralized service catalog and acting as the campus-wide hub for AI information, the AI Studio is reducing duplication of effort, accelerating AI adoption, and supporting cross-institutional collaboration across the UT System.
These efforts position UT Austin as a leader in higher education AI deployment and responsible use. The AI Studio was created to establish and expand access to AI technologies at UT Austin and across the UT System. In its first year, it delivered key AI infrastructure, engaged with students, staff, and faculty, and provided ongoing support for our growing catalog of AI services including UT Spark, Copilot, and ChatGPT Enterprise. Its work has laid the groundwork for responsible data usage in AI tools, while expanding the service catalog and creating a sustainable model for centralized AI support and governance across the institution. Visit the Artificial Intelligence page.
Release of D2I Financial Aid Dashboards from Student Financial Aid (SFA) System
D2I
As part of ongoing efforts to provide actionable and valuable analytics for executive decisionmaking in the financial aid space, D2I released 3 dashboards into production over the summer using data from the university's new SFA system. These dashboards provide decision-makers with immediate information for decision-making around financial aid for prospective and enrolled students and provides a foundation to build upon for future additional financial aid reporting. You must login to Insights to view dashboard.
Data Hub Production Release of UT Works
D2I
In order to support our partners in the overall UT Works project enabling the University to better manage its physical spaces, improve the delivery of mission-critical services, provide better and more useful data to drive capital projects, and streamline workflows across multiple units, our team ingrested and did metadata management for three separate source streams to support the implementation and associated reporting. D2I ingested 2,127 AiM source tables, 469 FAMIS source tables, and 248 SPACE source tables for this project and managed the associated metadata, enabling 2 data spokes for partners which support over 55 reports being generated out of data in the Data Hub by our partners. As part of the retirement of FAMIS in favor of UT Works, the Data Hub will be the only repository of FAMIS data gong forward. This monumental cross-team project involved collaboration with many units that are now part of one Enterprise Technology umbrella, enabling an overall successful launch of UT Works.
Modernizing the Data Hub Through Databricks Lakehouse Implementation
D2I
As part of ongoing acceleration of data warehousing technology and innovations in AI, Databricks was implemented this year as part of an ongoing maturation of our existing Data Lake within the Data Hub into a lakehouse structure long-term. The adoption of Databricks provides a more robust and flexible platform to support AI and machine learning and pushes the Data Hub into a more cutting-edge architecture and design to better support campus.
Robust and Continued Development of Our Trusted Information Infrastructure
D2I
As of the end of FY24-25, D2I had 32 modern dashboards out of the Data Hub in production, of which 7 were new or substantially updated within the last year. We also support 23 dashboards out of legacy sources that continue to be maintained and updated for campus users. We have a robust, reusable analytical architecture in the Data Hub, with over 200 objects in dbt. We also have 3 modern data models in production, ready for campus use (Financial Data Model, Workforce Data Model, Academic Data Model).
Initiation of the University's CUI Compliance Program
Campus Solutions
As part of our ongoing effort to establish a robust Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) program, the newly formed project team has made significant progress during the discovery phase. Over the past two weeks, the project team conducted initial stakeholder sessions with ISO, ET, OVPR, and Engineering, laying the groundwork for two essential workstreams: immediate remediation for inflight projects and the implementation of Phase 1 of the CUI program.
The establishment of this program will protect the roughly $1 billion in federally funded research designated as CUI that the University currently manages. An inflight project is at risk of losing $4.6M if not compliant by the end of September. To mitigate the risks and support continued growth in national security research at the University, a program has been established within the CIO's office.
The foundation for the initial CUI program is under development, with inflight project remediation underway, requiring urgent compliance actions and key responsibilities identified. Funding for the program has been secured. There are currently eight inflight research projects that will need remediation and compliance, while the CUI program build-out will continue over the next six months. For more information on this new program, please contact cui-research-help@utlists.utexas.edu.
Group Email Service Delivers 30 Million Messages Annually for Campus
Campus Solutions
The Group Email service successfully maintained high-volume, reliable delivery of institutional communications, supporting academic, administrative, and operational needs across the university community. With an average of 2.5 million emails sent each month – totaling 30 million annually – the service ensures timely, large-scale communication that underpins critical University functions and enhances engagement across students, faculty, and staff. Group Email is a core enterprise service enabling mass communication for official announcements, compliance notices, and academic updates. Its scalability and reliability make it essential for maintaining consistent, secure outreach to the entire campus population.
DocuSign E-Signature Volumes Reach 1.2 Million Annually Across University Transactions
Campus Solutions
DocuSign continues to support high-volume digital transactions across University departments, maintaining consistent monthly throughput and enabling secure, efficient document workflows. With 60,000 envelopes sent monthly, DocuSign facilitates an average of 100,000 e-signatures per month – totaling approximately 1.2 million signatures annually across University operations. DocuSign has become a foundational tool for digital document management, streamlining approvals, agreements, and compliance processes across academic and administrative units.
Documentum Retirement Finalized to Support Modernization and Reduce Legacy Risk
Campus Solutions
All Documentum customers have been successfully migrated to SharePoint ahead of the September 15, 2025 retirement deadline. ET expects annual savings of $175K by eliminating Documentum licenses and operational costs, while improving system supportability and compliance. Documentum, an enterprise document management system in production since 2016, saw limited adoption and rising sustainability concerns. It will be replaced by SharePoint and Microsoft Purview, aligning with the University’s modernization strategy.
Pantheon Web Hosting serves over 700 million pages annually for public-facing campus websites
Campus Solutions
Since 2015, Enterprise Technology has partnered with Pantheon to provide a scalable, high-availability web operations platform to campus that supports websites built in Drupal and WordPress. After starting with an initial group of 10 sites, this service has grown to support over 340 campus websites, including some of the highest-volume public-facing sites at the university that serve our parent and student populations, such as www.utexas.edu, the Office of Admissions, Texas One Stop, the Office of the Registrar, and Housing and Dining. During the 2024-25 fiscal year, the Pantheon service delivered over 700 million pages to 226 million site visitors.
Container Management Platform
Campus Solutions
The container management platform successfully hosted 1800 workloads throughout the year that supported approximately 37,000 jobs along with interfacing with the Universities critical business platforms. These workloads provided support to Texas High School students, Enrollment and registration of attending and incoming freshman along with their orientation to UT Austin. The platform is designed to provide maximum availability and resiliency for those workloads the University Community relies on to provide support to students, faculty and staff.
ID Card Modernization Initiative Lays Foundation for Future Digital ID Capabilities
Campus Solutions
Our team laid the foundation for the University’s modernized ID Card system by completing three critical deliverables:
- Requirements Gathering – Facilitated detailed workshops with key stakeholders to capture and align requirements, establishing a clear system architecture for the modernization effort.
- Communication Plan – Developed a comprehensive roadmap for engaging campus stakeholders, ensuring consistent messaging, and securing broad support for the new ID system and future digital ID capabilities.
- Design Blueprint – Finalized the overarching system design, providing a clear framework to guide implementation and integration efforts.
Together, these accomplishments provide the design groundwork needed to seamlessly transition into the first build phase and advance the university’s move toward mobile credentials. By conducting requirements workshops with 15+ stakeholder groups, developing a communication plan reaching the entire campus community, and finalizing a comprehensive design blueprint, our team laid the foundation for the university’s ID Card Modernization initiative—reducing implementation risk, enabling alignment with institutional needs, and setting the stage for a seamless transition to mobile credentials and a more efficient, future-ready ID system.
The ID Card Modernization initiative is a university-wide effort to enhance the student, faculty, and staff experience by replacing the legacy system with a modern, scalable platform that supports both physical ID cards and future digital credentials. This initiative advances the University’s IT Modernization Goals and supports the Digital ID vision by improving reliability and reducing wait times for ID issuance, establishing a future-ready platform for digital credentials, eliminating reliance on outdated mainframe systems and manual processes, and improving accuracy in reporting.
To enable this transformation, our team delivered three foundational components during this phase—Requirements Gathering, a Communication Plan, and a Design Blueprint—which ensure alignment with institutional needs, broad campus engagement, and a solid framework for the upcoming build phase. View the ID Card Modernization Communication Plan.
Mainframe database calls average 1.95 billion per Day
Campus Solutions
Mainframe database calls average 1.95 billion per day. Mainframe data underpins most of the university’s critical administrative systems. It’s used daily by academic advisors, admissions officers, financial administrators, and many web applications accessed by students and parents. Mainframe database calls averaged 1.95 billion per day in the 2024-25 fiscal year, an increase of 6.4% over the previous year.
MyUT supports 50K student logins to start the Fall 2025 Semester
Campus Solutions
MyUT provides UT Austin students with a web-based portal and mobile app that consolidates campus resources, including Canvas integration, class schedules, campus maps, and student support services. On the first day of classes MyUT supported 49,982 logins and 889,199 views. UT Sage serves up 166 Tutors to 529 students to start the Fall 2025 semester: UT Sage is a virtual instructional designer and AI Tutor designed by UT Austin experts to support the responsible use of generative AI in teaching and learning. Instructors can use UT Sage to create interactive chatbots that enhance student engagement and customize learning experiences.
UT Sage went live on 8/20/2025, and adoption for the Fall of 2025 is ramping up. The target is for UT Sage to support 5K students by the end of the Fall 2025 semester. Using Gen AI for Core Curriculum Assessment: Using Gen AI services to automate a manual and error-prone assessment process that can now be automated and standardized. Gen AI services are assessing core curriculum essays against academic rubrics. To date, the prototype process has graded 2,247 essays. Right now, it is well-positioned to save the time, cost, and effort of training 10+ graduate students during the summer and go through a rigorous training process.
Amazon Connect was implemented for cost savings and improved customer service: Human Resources, Veterans Affairs, and University Health Services implemented Amazon Connect this past year. Amazon Connect is a cloud-based contact center (CCaaS) service from Amazon Web Services. In July 2025 Human Resources handled 2,203 interactions in July in support of the University's benefits Open Enrollment period.
Cloud services enable research and development, production workloads, and innovation to campus: Across three cloud providers of Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure, 500+ user accounts and 100+ departments are using cloud services for a wide variety of workloads ranging from research and development, teaching and learning, healthcare, isolated and secure workloads requiring Gov Cloud, and production workloads. In all 150+ cloud services are supporting the University’s cloud needs.
UT Sage serves up 166 Tutors to 529 students to start the Fall 2025 semester
Campus Solutions
The ETA Team released UT Sage on 8/20/2025 on-time as promised to UT stakeholders making the application fully available to all faculty/staff/students just prior to the start of the Fall 2025 semester. UT Sage being fully available to all faculty/staff/students is a huge accomplishment. For faculty, it provides a way for them to create topic specific tutors to enhance classroom and online learning. Students benefit from having an additional tool to help them learn classroom topics by interacting with a tutor bot their instructor built and shared with them. UT Sage is responsive in nature which means the application is viewable by website or mobile. The supporting infrastructure will scale up and down as needed to support faculty and student usage.
As-of 9/5/25, UT Sage has seen faculty create 166 Tutors that have been used by 529 students in just the first two weeks of the Fall 2025 session. Each time the statistics are refreshed, the numbers continue to grow. The target is for UT Sage to support 5K students by the end of the Fall 2025 semester.
Faculty across the board are impressed and happy with the application. We have seen lots of positive feedback from faculty, and additional requests to add more features.
Prior to the GA (general availability) release, the UT Sage application was released as a Beta version in March of 2025 with limited faculty/staff/student participation while key features for the Fall 2025 release were being built and tested.
Mail Filtering Service Scans 936 Million Emails, Blocks 145 Million Threats Annually
Campus Solutions
The University’s Mail Filtering and Relay Service safeguards institutional email by providing advanced antispam, antivirus, and anti-phishing protection while supporting secure mail relay for on-campus devices. Over the past year, the service scanned 936 million emails and blocked 145 million identified threats, ensuring the integrity of University communications. In addition, approximately 4,700 on-campus devices (such as multifunction printers and servers) rely on the relay function to deliver essential messages, reinforcing the service’s role as a critical layer of security and reliability across campus operations.
IAM enabled secure access for millions through authentication, identity management, and MFA Adoption
Campus Solutions
The Identity and Access Management (IAM) team supported over 110 million authentications and protected 1,013 applications and services across campus in the past year. IAM managed 11.35 million UT EIDs and added 353,200 new identities, with 130,000 secured by multi-factor authentication. The IAM team’s technologies ensure secure access to University resources, supporting collaboration and engagement across students, staff, affiliates, and guests.