Optional COVID Impact Statement

Faculty members may include an optional COVID-19 impact statement with their promotion materials (for tenured and tenure track faculty members, librarian faculty members, and professional track faculty members). The statements will be incorporated into submitted promotion dossiers and reviewed internally and not shared external letter writers.

The decision to submit a COVID-19 impact statement remains with the faculty member, and provides an opportunity for faculty members to:

• Detail and explain responses to disruptions to professional activities (Research/Scholarship/Creative works; Teaching, to include mentoring and advising; Service; and Extension activities).
• Reflect on both positive and negative impacts, as relevant, and to highlight achievements that may not be otherwise visible (e.g., redirecting research to accommodate travel restrictions, developing new research methodologies and approaches).
• Detail disruptions to expected resources (including time), potential opportunities, and planned activities through circumstances beyond their control. Faculty members may also explain how they adapted to overcome these challenges and note how these adaptations represent a form of productivity during this period.
• Contextualize professional accomplishments and challenges related to the pandemic for internal audiences.

The level of detail regarding specific causes of the impacts is left to the faculty member’s discretion. While a faculty member may include information about how personal situations affected their work, they should only state the nature of the circumstances (e.g., medical, bereavement, family responsibilities) and not include specific details. A statement citing the inability to work or to only work at a reduced capacity due to medical reasons, for example, is sufficient for the impact of the circumstances to be taken into consideration.

Statements must be no more than two (2) pages. Faculty members have discretion on how they wish to organize their statements, but may wish to do so based on relevant evaluative categories (e.g., Research/Scholarship/Creative Works; Teaching, to include mentoring and advising; Service; and Extension). 

Research / Scholarship / Creative Works

• Limitations on the ability to travel to conduct research.
• Limitations on the ability to conduct research, for example, access to labs, studios, animals, clinical settings, field settings, human subjects, archives, libraries, etc.
• Limitations due to remote office infrastructure (e.g., printers, computing, adequate internet access and availability, ability to access data remotely).
• Limitations on access to funds to support research.
• Impacts on productivity due to COVID-related safety protocols in the relevant work or research spaces (e.g., labs, work spaces).
• Impacts on time to conduct research due to learning new teaching methods, (re)developing courses for remote and/or online delivery.
• Impacts on time to conduct research due to greater time spent on supporting and mentoring students/postdocs, or other student-focused activities.
• Impacts on the ability to conduct research due to caregiving demands (e.g., eldercare, school and daycare closures, etc.).
• Impacts on time to analyze data, write, or engage in essential research activities.
• Delays in editorial decisions related to publications (e.g., journal articles, book manuscripts).
• Cancellations of or modifications to professional conferences.
• Closing of performance venues, exhibition venues, and/or cancellation of planned performances or exhibitions, etc.
• Restricted access to supplies/disruption in supply chains relevant to research.
• Adapting to new disruptions involved in remote work (i.e., multiple people sharing remote work spaces).
• Challenges encountered in engaging in networking and collaborative efforts remotely.
• Additional stress and/or distraction from being in a particularly hard-hit community.

Teaching

• Significant time to reconfigure courses, syllabi, and other materials for remote/online, in person, and/or blended instruction format.
• Significant effort related to adopting new teaching formats as a result of the pivot to remote/online instruction and learning (including participation in professional training sessions such as those offered by TLTC).
• Significant effort required to address the complexity related to evaluating student work due to course delivery changes.
• Significant effort required to acquire, learn, and configure new infrastructure at home and/or in remote work environments to successfully engage in online/remote instruction (e.g., new technologies, augmenting internet connectivity, setting up a space, finding quiet spaces, etc.).
• Significant time constraints and challenges created by caregiving responsibilities (e.g., eldercare, school and daycare closures, etc.).
• Significant effort and time devoted to student care, stress, and mental health concerns.
• Reallocation of time and focus related to ensuring content delivery through multiple instructional formats.
• Management of disruptions and the need for multitasking required for blended, online, and simultaneous face-to-face and remote instruction.
• Management of new complexities when interacting with students (e.g., advising and mentoring) who face pandemic-related and other challenges.
• Additional stress and/or distraction from being in a particularly hard-hit community.

Extension

• Limitations on access to communities, research settings, and resources for extension/outreach.
• Limitations of service population technology infrastructure (e.g., computing devices, internet access) and ability to engage in digital content/programs (i.e., digital skills).
• Limitations on travel.
• Limitations and/or disruptions to engagement with community-based organizations and institutions.
• Challenges or inability to move programs and content online due to the nature of the services and/or programs (i.e., requires “hands on” demonstrations such as working with livestock, farming).
• Disruptions to in-person programming and moving to online programming.
• Disruptions that limit the ability to engage in Extension scholarship and service activities
• Shifts in local and community priorities that impacted activities and funding (e.g., pausing some while others became immediate high priorities).
• Impacts on the ability to engage in Extension activities due to caregiving demands (e.g., eldercare, school and daycare closures, etc.).

Librarianship

• Impacts on performance of core librarianship functions due to the closure and/or limited operations of library buildings.
• Challenges of engaging with service communities (e.g., students, faculty, staff) due to the pivot to online/remote service provision.
• Challenges of migrating instructional programs/workshops online.
• Challenges of migrating and/or creating exhibits/programs online.
• Limitations on travel.
• Limitations on the ability to attend professional conferences/meetings.
• Limitations due to remote office infrastructure (e.g., printers, computing, adequate internet access and availability, ability to access data remotely).
• Impacts on the ability to engage in librarianship activities due to caregiving demands (e.g., eldercare, school and daycare closures, etc.).
• Management of disruptions and the need for multitasking required for online and/or remote offering of services, programs, and meeting service community needs.
• Additional stress and/or distraction from being in a particularly hard-hit community.

Service

• New, increased, and/or unanticipated service requests and requirements related to the response of the university, professional organizations, laboratories, funding/governmental agencies, etc. (e.g., establishment and service on DEI-related, caregiving, or other committees at the department, college, and/or University levels).
• “Hidden” service obligations, including additional time and energy spent mentoring and supporting students, colleagues, and others with particular impacts from the pandemic.
• Increased complexity and difficulty with service contributions due to prohibitions on travel, face-to-face meetings, communication, etc.
• Increased service requirements and time demands for faculty engaged in extensive outreach activities (e.g., facility closures, lack of connectivity/technology infrastructure in some areas, inability to travel, etc.).
• Added complexity and slower progress with committee work when relying on videoconferencing and other communication for meetings.
• Additional time needed to complete tasks due to caregiving and other responsibilities or matters.
• Additional service requirements created by colleagues who mistakenly believe that most faculty members now have more free time.
• Impacts on the ability to engage in service activities due to caregiving demands (e.g., eldercare, school and daycare closures, etc.).