COVID-19 Impact Statements

The purpose of explaining COVID-19 impacts is to show how a faculty member’s workload and professional oopportunities across research, teaching, and service changed, in quality and quantity, in ways that are not typically recorded on a CV. Further, the statement can serve to make plain, highlight, or otherwise point out new, altnernative or extra effort in teaching, scholarship, and research. or ongoing invisible labor in the scholar's context.  The changes could have had a positive, negative or mixed impact on the plans and contributions of a faculty. 

Making the changes in workload visible and offering clarifying or other contextual information for understanding how work was changed may be useful to the faculty member. No one is required to offer personal stories or supplemental information if they are worried it will disadvantage them. Each faculty should decide whether to provide this optional information, or how else to keep track of it elsewhere.

The intent is to enable faculty to strategically record their activities, again, including activities which may not be typicaly represented or contextualized on a CV. The intention is not to require extra work, as again, the statement is optional. The resources here should support developing your statement, should you choose to prepare one. 

The statement provides reviewers (internal and external) information useful to performing a fair, contextualized evaluation of the faculty member’s professional performance and contributions given any opportunites, challenges. 

It is recommended that COVID-19 Impact Statements describe:  

• The time period (not the reason) for approved medical or personal leaves related to COVID-19.
• The faculty member’s workload, performance and trajectory or path prior to COVID-19.
• The impact that COVID-19 had on workload and professional opportunities alongside the resulting impact on faculty productivity, performance and trajectory in each of the relevant areas of specialization (research/scholarly works, teaching, service, and also on any awards, mentoring, etc.). More professional faculty related details are provided on this below.
• How the faculty member has adjusted or plans to adjust their work in light of COVID’s professional impact to continue or re-build their trajectory.
• May detail different kinds of professional impact on faculty work (negative and/or positive effects). 
• Use discretion about sharing personal details (e.g., dependent care inaccessibility challenges, personal or dependents’ health information, etc.).
• Should not be longer than two pages.

• Amount, patterns and performance in terms of workload, responsibilities and accomplishments
• Prospects for development and innovation
• Timing and availability of opportunities and access to facilities and personnel

Ask yourself:

• Was your research, performance(s), or other creative activity delayed or altered by the pandemic?
• What challenges emerged and how did you respond to them?

Research Examples 

• Cancelation of
  • Conference presentations / keynotes / invited talks
  • Performances
  • Exhibitions
  • Artist/scholar-in-residence appointments
• Pivot in response to COVID-19 led to new avenue for research and discovery
• Scholarly expertise of relevance to pandemics led to more research opportunities and collaborations
• Closing of labs or access to research resources (field work sites, archives and libraries, human subjects, performance space, data-gathering / collaboration travel, etc.)
• Creation of and constant monitoring and updating to lab COVID-19 safety protocols
• Cancelation or delays in research supplies
• Sabattical or other faculty development leave shortchanged, delayed, interrupted, etc.
• Grant funding
  • Restricted
  • Expanded opportunities for those in COVID-related research fields
  • Paying students although not making expected progress in research – time spent re-defining how to achieve research objectives
• Cancelation or delay of book contracts and publication due to book press closures or restrictions
• Delays in publications due to reviewer inaccessibility
• Delays in arrivals or visits of international collaborators (faculty, students, post docs)
• Other professional responsibilities and workloads intruded on research or creative performance time

Example of Impacts

"I oversaw the pivot of all grant-sponsored workshops that were intended to be delivered in person to the online environment. Successfully transitioning all of our content and curriculum to an online platform included developing a new, web-based interactive curriculum and required we ensure the audience members had access to the internet and tools to participate in a virtual learning environment. Initial evaluation results indicate that the online intervention was successful, with participants reporting a 10% increase pre to post in their efficacy. Although we saw some program attrition, and the implementation timeline was delayed, overall the results indicate extra effort in this area brought positive results. Some of the interactive strategies will remain for future programming that takes place in person. "

'Multiple funded research field trips, valued in millions of dollars, were postponed or outright canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The causes vary but include ballooning costs, backlogged projects, lack of specialized [staff personnel], and efforts to avoid COVID outbreaks in foreign countries and close quarters. For example, our plans for [the specialized field work] had to be abandoned when [costs] more than doubled relative to pre-COVID quotes used for budgeting. On top of this loss, my students, collaborators, and I could not access the underground field site for 1.5 years. Other fieldwork has been rescheduled with reduced scientific objectives or increased resource demands. For example, three members of my research laboratory each had to spend more than two weeks in isolation at a hotel in early 2021 before participating in a month-long research trip. Although I am grateful that our expedition was able to happen at all, this isolation time amounts to 1.5 months of salary costs spent outside the laboratory. These challenges are creating new problems as there is pressure to accomplish project aims with less time and resources.'

"As a third example, one of my research projects requiring a trip that was scheduled for 2021 was canceled outright, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. My Ph.D student was forced to shift the focus of much of his dissertation as a result. Fortunately, the funder accepted a new proposal at a new location in 2023, which will engage other students."

"Salaries of postdoctoral researchers and graduate students funded by external grants had to be used to support them through closures, instead of supporting research in the laboratory and collecting data as intended. Some of these essential personnel re-evaluated their career goals and decided to resign or shorten their positions. This phenomenon is widespread."

Ask yourself:

• What teaching challenges emerged because of shifting modalities, if any, and how did you concretely address these challenges?
• What effects did these changes have on student learning this term, and what longer term effects might there be on your teaching or the experience of Lehigh students?

Teaching and Mentoring Impacts

• Moving class online might have led to negative impact in terms of re-distribution of workload away from scholarship
• Impact on student evaluations of teaching results could be contextualized given the move to online instruction
• Invisible student care or mentoring support added to faculty workload
• Faculty member covered another faculty member’s course for some period of time (which is positive in terms of service but might have diverted the work time the faculty member had for scholarship or other workload)
• Moving class online resulted in improved pedagogical experience of some kind (e.g., increased office hours attendance, etc.)
• Faculty member needed to do more research student mentoring in one-one sessions because group meetings couldn't take place and there were limited opportunities for postdocs or senior grad students to train newer graduate trainees or undergraduates

Example Statements:

• "I participated in 10 hours of workshops through my professional association and the National Academies for Science, Engineering, and Medicine related to inclusive pedagogy and high-quality teaching in the virtual environment. I supported my colleagues in applying these tools and participated in five college-wide sessions on strategies for online engagement, and I led a sixth session in use of clickers to liven up Zoom sessions. Additionally, my department determined that the nature of my course made online teaching of the class size impossible. At my department chair’s request, I agreed to teach double the sections with half as many students each, so although the amount of grading was the same, I spent twice as many hours in actual class time. One section was early in the morning, to accommodate students in Asia, and one section was at night, to accommodate students who had to share computers with younger siblings and/or parents also learning/working from home."
• "Online teaching remained the norm into the first half of 2021. Summertime, normally devoted to advancing research activities, became a time to learn how to be effective at remote teaching."
• "The situation required not just one pivot to online learning, but repeated pivots as the mode of instruction alternated not ONLY between semesters, but class to class depending on number of COVID-19 positive students. In reality, teaching the same course Spring 2020, Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 was really three different preps. "
• "Mentoring and advising students online also required learning new strategies to connect and maintain engagement. Although teaching has now returned to an in-person format, COVID impacts linger still as outbreaks require students to stay at home. Developing strategies to accommodate common student absences now demands an additional effort that was not necessary pre-COVID."
• "In addition to changes and increased demands in providing students mentorship, I feel my own experience obtaining mentorship and establishing relationships in this period was a challenge. Having just arrived to campus a year prior, I expected it to take some time to become embedded into the collegial fabric of our department and campus. However, the switch to remote work and isolation protocols when on campus has led to fewer strong department and Lehigh-network ties compared to the experiences of colleagues of non-pandemic cohorts. This disconnect has impacted or stalled the development of my local reputation as a researcher, as senior and established colleagues have mostly (and generiously) been interacting with me as someone who needs support. I've found and taken avail of several national online communities to reamain intellectually connected. While building my scholarly identity this way took additional work and time to sustain online research relationships, I have been able to receive research related mentorship while growing my network of critical external mentors and colleagues who are knowledgable of my scholarly potential and contributions.  My internal research relationships are now, several years later, starting to slowly come into being."

Ask yourself:

• How, if applicable, did your service-load or your ability to effectively meet service observations change due to the pandemic?
• If you experienced increased workload or decreased opportunities for service (either at the university, in the profession, or the community) explain that.
• This may include increased social-emotional mentoring of other faculty, staff, and students who have needed additional support.
• What additional trainings, workshops, or other preparations did you undertake to respond to the pandemic, including the shift to emergency online teaching?

Types of Impacts

• Service leadership workload increased in support of staff, students, faculty (positive in terms of service although might negatively impact time available for other areas of specialization like research or teaching, etc.)

• Clarify the level of the service leadership (program, department, college, school, institution, community, national, etc.)

Examples from Statements

• "I served on a newly created committee, which met once a week for 12 weeks to discuss accommodations that could be made within the department related to the extra burden to faculty and staff in caregiving roles during the pandemic."
• "As the director for undergraduate studies, I led the transition of all campus visits to the virtual environment, including training 10 undergraduate student ambassadors on how to host virtual campus visits for incoming students."
• "I facilitated 3 college listening sessions on the climate for Black students in May and June of the year after the protests for racial justice. I have subsequently hosted two zoom sessions from noted diversity, equity, and inclusion experts in our field to give department members strategies for enhancing DEI in their classrooms."
• "In confidential surveys, over half of my students indicated increased stress and anxiety due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The emotional toll of the pandemic manifests in some students as a difficulty to concentrate, sleep issues, and increased worry about their own health and well-being as well as that of their friends and family. Students at all levels have experienced social isolation that has limited their ability to make professional connections at a pivotal time in their career paths. They are keenly aware of this loss. These situations impact learning and discovery in negative ways, and they have increased the time I dedicate to supporting students."
• "The pandemic also required unprecedented effort to develop protocols to gain and maintain access to university facilities, while preventing the spread of the virus and keeping everyone safe. I dedicated significant efforts in summer 2020 to develop protocols that were used as a model to safely use research laboratories in the department; and these models helped others across campus."

It is probably not advisable to dwell on personal information, impacts, and situations in this statement. While it is true that many colleagues' personal lives were impacted by the pandemic, especially if they had caregiving roles; BIPOC faculty's and white women's careers and lives have been disproportionally negtively impacted during this time.  Depending on the norms and culture of different academic communities, some types of impacts in the personal life space might activate negative stereotypes and mental models of bias during an evaluation which can detract from the candidate's successful review. While ADVANCE has been working to educate internal Lehigh faculty about these biases, how to apply more holistic review, and to consider achievement relative to opportunity, candidates should still be strategic in describing personal COVID-19 impacts in this statement.  If you have questions about your draft, please reach out and ADVANCE can consult to suport you crafting a statement.

Example:

Rules and Procedures of the Faculty describes Tenure Clock Extension in the following sections:

2.2.5.7.Extensions to the probationary period. 

2.2.5.7.1 Extension of Probationary Period for Parenthood

2.2.5.7.2 Extension of Probationary Period for Personal Disability, Family Care, Public Service, Military Service, or Extreme Personal Hardship

2.2.5.7.3 Elective Extension of Probationary Period for Any Reason in the Year Prior to the Final Probationary Year

2.2.5.8 Maximum Length of Probationary Period

"The maximum length of the probationary period of a faculty member, with all extensions, is eight years. Under extreme circumstance, such as a prolonged shutdown of University facilities, the Provost may consider extending the maximum length of the probationary period beyond the established eight year limit. The Faculty recognizes the significant disruption that COVID-19 may have had on faculty and their ability to pursue their respective research programs. Consequently, tenure track faculty may request an extension, see R&P 2.2.5.7.2 (7), of their probationary period due to disruptions in their progress toward meeting applicable tenure standards due to COVID-19. The grant of an extension due to COVID-19 to a faculty member shall result in a corresponding extension to such faculty member’s maximum probationary period."

Lehigh University's COVID Impact Statement goes to external evaluators. Some departments may have prepared their own similar statement to enhance disciplinary and institutional contextualization of the impact of the pandemic.  

The statement can be part of the faculty member’s activity report, reappointment, tenure dossier, promotion plan,  or promotion application. These statements are intended to provide reviewers with information needed to perform a fair, thorough, and fully contextualized review of the faculty member’s record. Lehigh University's standards for review and promotion have not changed on account of the pandemic. However, we recognize that the pandemic affected nearly all faculty members’ productivity in research, teaching, and/or service in some way.  We also recognize that faculty members experienced many different effects—both negative and positive—and that the magnitude of these effects varied greatly based on multiple factors such as academic discipline, research methods, and personal and professional obligations and individual identities.

It should be expected that colleagues had personal impacts to one degree or another. 

The COVID Impact Statement is not an excuse-making document; it is not an explanation for not meeting promotion or tenure standards; instead, it can provide important context about a faculty member’s accomplishments and the timing of those achievements during the pandemic given the changing constraints and available opportunities. Reviewers should consider COVID Impact Statements in ways that advance inclusive attribution of contributions and accomplishments and minimize biases. They should take into account the context and challenges that a faculty member has faced, how they have mitigated these challenges, and how they plan to adapt, grow or otherwise manage ongoing effects in the future. Reviewers should recognize that faculty workload may have looked very different during the pandemic and extend the benefit of the doubt that the candidate prioritized their efforts given their unique challenges.

For example, workload distribution may have changed when pivoting to online teaching or increased mentoring/advising responsibilities which could have resulted in less productivity in other areas of work. Some faculty members may have had to shift their data collection methods or even change their research focus. Alternate methods of dissemination (e.g., webinars) became common.

Ask yourself what do the criteria/what does excellence look like in, through the aftermath, and because of a global pandemic?

It is critical that for the particular type of faculty review, evaluators understand and apply clear, transparent, consistent, fair, equitable, and inclusive criteria. Please use the following guidelines for reviewing COVID Impact Statements:

1. The COVID Impact Statement should be acknowledged as an important part of the candidate’s activity report and dossier. Read it carefully to contextualize the candidate’s case.

2. The stated impacts should be accepted as truth.

3. The faculty member’s accomplishments must be evaluated based on the information that is provided. Do not make inferences or judgements about a candidate’s situation.

4. The work that a faculty member produced must be evaluated based on quality and its impact on the field, not simply on the quantity of work.

5. The time to tenure/promotion must not be a consideration. Tenure extensions have been granted for a variety of valid reasons, which do not require any further assessments of validity.

6. Each impact statement must be considered only in relation to the faculty member who has submitted it. Making comparisons among candidates (now or in previous years) is inappropriate and can introduce bias.

7. Recognize that the impacts of COVID have varied greatly among faculty. Attend entirely to how the candidate has overcome challenges.

8. Recognize that impacts may be ongoing, and may even be changing over time. Some impacts may affect a faculty member’s work for many years to come.

9. “Do not let the ~25% of faculty able to be more productive during the global pandemic set the standard for the 75% who are not able to do so.”- (Settles, I. H. & Linderman, J. (2020, October 5). Faculty equity and COVID-19: The problem, the evidence, and recommendations. University of Michigan ADVANCE Program.)

In summary, reviewers should consider the impacts COVID-19 has had on individual faculty members and evaluate their records holistically and in context, taking special care not to introduce bias into their evaluation. While this is always the expectation for promotion and tenure reviews, deliberate attention to these matters is even more important as we continue to recover from the pandemic.

Lehigh University Faculty Members have the option to include a COVID-19 Impact Statement as a component when they prepare the following review materials:

• Annual Review
• Termed Faculty Reappointment
• Pre-Tenure Reappointment
• Tenure Review
• Post-Tenure Trienniel/Promotion Plan
• Termed Faculty Promotion 
• Promotion to Full Professor Review

Learn about the research which emerged related to how the pandemic impacted faculty careers. Special focus on these papers and resources:

Goodwin, S., & Mitchneck, B. (2020, August 15). STEM equity and inclusion (un)interrupted? Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/05/13/ensuring-pandemic-doesnt-negatively-impactwomen-stem-especiallythose-color. Gonzales, L., &

Griffin, K. A. (2020). Supporting faculty during & after COVID-19: Don't let go of equity. Washington, DC: Aspire Alliance.

Myers, K., Tham, W. Y., Yin, Y., Cohodes, N., Thursby, J. G., Thursby, M. C., Schiffer, P., Walsh, J. T., Lakhani, K. R., & Wang, D. (2020). Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists. Nature Human Behavior, 4, 880-883. doi:10.1038/s41562-020-0921-y

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26061.

• Documenting the pandemic (UMASS Amherst one pager and citations)
• In the wake of COVID-19, academia needs new solutions to ensure gender equity, Malisch, et al, 2020, PNAS
• University of Michigan ADVANCE Faculty Equity & COVID-19: The problem, the evidence, and recommendations
• University of Maryland Examples of COVID-19 Impact Statements
• University of Denver Responding to Covid-19 Impacts on Faculty Careers
• University of California, San Diego "Achievement Relative to Opportunity"