Faculty teaching, research, and service remain a central focus as higher ed institutions plan for a range of scenarios for Fall 2020. As you plot your path forward, take advantage of opportunities to simplify measurement and reporting strategies to align with evolving expectations for faculty.
Impact on Promotion & Tenure and Review Processes
In a Spring 2020 Watermark survey, two-thirds of respondents reported that their institutions’ 2020-21 faculty review process could be impacted by COVID-19, with 41% of respondents from tenure-granting institutions reporting they had already altered their tenure deadlines and timeframes.
Challenges to 2019-2020 Tenure Review
9.9%
Getting the right participants access to the right materials |
17.5%
Managing tenure review processes online |
13.2%
Supporting committee involvement in the process |
19.5%
Responding to the impact of COVID-19 on tenure considerations |
16.6%
Clarifying expectations for participants |
23.2%
Keeping the process on track relative to original deadlines |
Opportunities
Faculty’s teaching, research, and service have changed in so many ways that adjusting the review, promotion, and tenure clock isn’t a one-size-fits-all proposition. Recommendations based on the survey:
- Allow faculty to decide whether to request an extension or proceed on their existing schedule
- Consider longer extensions for faculty whose research has been significantly disrupted or rely heavily on travel
- Reevaluate expectations around promotion and tenure to reflect the shift in job responsibilities and requirements
- Consider how student feedback from surveys and evaluations will be included in faculty portfolios
- Adjust data collection methodologies to include digital measurement and reporting tools to streamline the review process and enable remote participation
Impact on Research
83% of survey respondents indicated that research initiatives on their campus have been disrupted to some degree.
- “Approximately 73% of tenured/tenure-track faculty reported making less progress than usual on their scholarly work during the Spring 2020 semester; 13% made no progress at all. Many were unable to access student research assistants, laboratories, and other on-campus resources (like their offices).”
- “Individual scholarly activity continues, but the burden of suddenly converting face-to-face programs and courses into online courses has consumed faculty time to a great extent.”
- “Faculty are not allowed on campus until fall, thus summer research is at a standstill.”
- “Human subject and school-based research disrupted.”
Opportunities
- Maintain those research projects that can continue without adjustment, allowing lab and equipment access where possible
- Seek creative ways to adjust projects to accommodate safety protocols and procedures
- Prioritize funding for new projects as faculty uncover new research opportunities out of the pandemic
- Adjust expectations for faculty to reflect their post pandemic workloads
- Refine requirements in the faculty review process
Impact On Service
More than half of survey respondents (56%) reported that expectations regarding committee work or other types of institutional, college/school, or departmental service at their institution were impacted by COVID-19.
- “Faculty were not expected to continue their committee work unless it would have a direct impact on student success for students currently enrolled. The focus and priority was on helping the current students to continue and finish the semester and/or graduate on time.”
- “All committees and working groups were impacted — some were indefinitely pushed back, and many were created to respond to the crisis.”
- “A smaller faculty due to hiring freeze means all faculty will need to increase their commitment to campus-wide committees and service.”
- “Some service may be eliminated (service learning, club support) in favor of core business service (advising, recruitment).”
Opportunities
- Weigh the effort faculty put toward converting courses to online instruction more heavily in their service requirements
- Adjust policies, procedures, and bylaws to enable remote participation in committees and meetings and drive engagement
- Redefine “service” to include activities like crisis management, peer-to-peer training on tools for online instruction, strategic planning for Fall 2020, providing additional support to students, and more
- Include community involvement and support as part of the service requirement
- Account for “unseen labor,” including supporting distressed students, advisory activities, and informal leadership responsibilities
