News - Academic Personnel & Faculty

BTAA Career Fair Concludes

Big Ten Virtual Job Fair for Postdocs Concludes

The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) held its 2026 virtual Academic Postdoc Hiring Fair on March 25. This event brought together postdoctoral researchers and PhDs with hiring teams looking to fill faculty and postdoctoral positions from across the now 18+ Big Ten institutions. Held on the career services platform Handshake, the BTAA described this event as connecting “colleges and universities nationally with our diverse, high-caliber pool of BIG10 PhD and postdoctoral talent across all disciplines for open tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty positions, as well as postdoctoral roles.” A previous iteration of this event, held in October of 2025, drew 23 R1 institutions and over 900 registered participants.

If you weren’t able to attend this Spring, it’s worth keeping an eye out for future iterations of this event later in 2026. The October 2025 event included a virtual career fair for postdoc and faculty positions. In the meantime, make sure your CV and research profile are up to date. The Office for Academic Personnel & Faculty intends to post further events on APF’s Postdoctoral Scholars page.

Postdocs & Advisors: Notable Mentoring Event is on the Horizon

2026 Mentoring the Mentor Workshop Series

In coordination with other UW units, the Office for Academic Personnel & Faculty will be hosting a Mentoring the Mentor (MtM) workshop in the fall of 2026! In previous years, the MtM series has explored academic mentorship through these interactive workshops to promote and support a respectful and collaborative mentoring model. These workshops have also disseminated effective methods, tools, and resources to a variety of participants.

Themes from the 2025 series can be found here.

These workshops may be of interest for both faculty advisors and postdocs with mentoring responsibilities. Be on the lookout for the fall dates on this blog!

USCIS Announces Changes to Standard for Adjustment of Status

On May 22, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it would start approving I-485 Applications to Adjust Status (the “green card” or “permanent residence” application) only in “extraordinary circumstances.” This policy could affect any University of Washington student or employee who has applied or will apply for permanent residence inside the U.S.; however, other applications and petitions (e.g. , I-129 Petitions for Nonimmigrant Workers) should not be affected. USCIS has issued a policy memo discussing the change in more detail.

Because this policy is newly announced, it is unclear how it will be applied in individual cases, and fully understanding its scope and impact may take time. We encourage any UW student or employee with a pending I-485 application to consult with a private immigration attorney for guidance, with the understanding that those attorneys may also be awaiting further information.

ISO will continue to check our peer networks and other legal resources and provide further updates as we learn more. ISO advisors will reach out to faculty with in-process, UW-sponsored permanent residence cases for their awareness.

If you have questions about this issue as it relates to UW-sponsored permanent residence, please contact ISO.