Polaris for UT Dallas Faculty and Staff
Polaris is the transformational, new digital system designed to support students throughout their UT Dallas experience. A collaborative platform backed by Salesforce Education Cloud, Polaris provides the opportunity to communicate, engage and support students and alumni throughout their UTD journey.
This system also streamlines department-level software that has been purchased to manage communications, engagement, appointment scheduling, and many other services.
The Office of Institutional Success and Decision Support will provide Polaris support for all campus users, including processing access requests, technical assistance and training support.
If you can’t find what you are looking for, faculty and staff should contact OISDS for support by e-mail at polaris@utdallas.edu.
Polaris Campus Deployment Plan
The implementation of Polaris is a transformational project that is centered on leveraging technology to support student success. This will be an ongoing implementation with additional campus units and system enhancements added over multiple semesters. The Office of Institutional Success and Decision supports engages with broad sets of campus stakeholders to develop priorities for deployment and additional enhancements.
Initial Go-Live Units in Spring 2026
This document outlines the units that are part of the January 7, 2026 initial launch of Polaris and the functionality that will be deployed.
Roadmap of Additional Units to Go-Live
OISDS has developed a roadmap of future units that will be onboarded to use the core functionality over the next few semesters. For questions about the roadmap, e-mail Wray Weldon.
Polaris Training
Faculty and staff training for Polaris is offered in multiple modalities.
Asynchronous Training in KnowBe4
Faculty and staff users will be assigned modules to complete in KnowBe4. These are required to complete prior to attending an instructor-led session. The trainings will provide a basic introduction to Polaris and other job-specific training. If you would like to learn more about KnowBe4 training or have questions, e-mail polaris@utdallas.edu.
Instructor-led Training
Virtual and in-person training sessions will be offered to faculty and staff users on an ongoing basis. These sessions will build on KnowBe4 asynchronous training and focus on how to use the system to support students. The sessions will be tailored for your job role.
Upcoming Instructor-led Training Sessions
Recruitment and Admissions Trainings
| Date/time | Training Session | Description | Registration Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ongoing | Admissions Committee Member Training | This training is for faculty members on admissions committees. It will cover how to navigate and review applications. | Contact Ashlee Byers for information |
| Every Tuesday, 9–10am | Polaris Admissions Office Hours | These drop-in sessions are available to any faculty or staff member to ask questions or receive support on using Polaris for recruitment and admissions. | Login to Microsoft Teams meeting using this link. Contact Ashlee Byers with questions |
Student Success Upcoming Trainings
| Date/time | Training Session | Description | Registration Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every Tuesday, 9–10am | Polaris Student Success Office Hours | These drop-in sessions are available to any faculty or staff member to ask questions or receive support on using Polaris for student success. |
Login to Microsoft Teams meeting using this link. Contact Janette Maldonado with questions. |
Department and unit specific training for Student Success were held in November and December 2025. To learn more about your department’s training options, please contact Janette Maldonado.
Job Aids and Other Helpful Resources
The following resources were developed as support for users to navigate Polaris successfully. These resources will be updated if changes are made within the system. Have a suggestion for additional resources? Please e-mail us at polaris@utdallas.edu.
- Job Aids for Recruitment and Admissions (link coming)
- Job Aids for Student Success
- Advising Cases: Accessing Student Advising Cases
- Appointment Management: Creating a Shift
- Appointment Management: Editing Information & Recurrence
- Appointment Management: Editing Engagement Channels & Work Topics
- Appointment Management: Scheduling Student Appointment
- Appointment Management: Reassigning Student Appointments
- Student Interaction Notes: Creating and Editing Student Interaction Notes
- Student Interaction Notes: Filtering Student Interaction Notes
- Student Tasks: Viewing and Managing Student Tasks
- Polaris Glossary of Terms (link coming)
Frequently Asked Questions
Stay tuned for a list of frequently asked questions for faculty and staff. Please contact polaris@utdallas.edu if you have a request for support or need information.
Polaris Support
For Polaris support, e-mail polaris@utdallas.edu.
At this e-mail, you can request:
- Access requests
- Enhancements and functionality requests
- Report and analytic support
- Technical issues
- Training and change management support