A.11 Professional Impact of COVID-19

The University recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic introduced numerous professional challenges to the work of our faculty beginning in spring 2020 and extending through spring 2022. Candidates may discuss the direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their professional work and opportunities (e.g., lab closures, global supply chain disruptions, inability to travel for work, and slowed book presses), as well as the overall impact on their productivity, performance, and trajectory in their statements on teaching, research, mentoring, and service [Sections G.6(b), G.7(b), G.8(b), and G.9(b)] or in an optional COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement [Section G.12(a)] within the dossier. Reviewers at all levels should use these statements to help contextualize the candidate’s record in rank and consider the professional impacts when reviewing faculty accomplishments in rank.

Note: While the COVID-19 pandemic also introduced personal challenges for many faculty members, those impacts are addressed by the faculty member designating periods during which their productivity was negatively impacted because of personal circumstances, and those designated periods are excluded from the review. For example, tenure-track faculty members had the option of requesting an extension to their probationary period, and tenured faculty members had the option of requesting a personal circumstances flag due to the impact of COVID-19. All candidates are evaluated based on the number of years of probationary service or effective years of service in rank, not the total time in rank.