COVID-19 Professional Impact Statements

This page lists COVID-19 questions, answers and examples focused on COVID-19 Professional Impact Statements.

 

What is a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement?

A COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement is an optional statement that faculty can include in their review materials. The Statement should briefly document the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has directly had on faculty workload and professional opportunities and the resulting impact on faculty productivity, performance, and trajectory. This two-page statement can be shared with faculty review committees to contextualize the faculty member’s performance and contributions. The Statement can be included for all types of review including annual, mid-probationary, promotion and tenure, and comprehensive periodic review.

What is the purpose of a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement?

The purpose of a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement offers a single statement in which faculty can document the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has directly had on faculty workload and professional opportunities and the resulting impact on faculty productivity, performance and trajectory. The Statement provides reviewers information that they need to perform a fair, contextualized evaluation of the faculty member’s professional performance and contributions.

What should COVID Professional Impact Statement contain?

The COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement:

  • Should include a time period (ONLY– not the reason) for approved medical or personal leaves related to COVID-19.
  • Should describe the faculty member’s workload, performance and trajectory prior to COVID-19.
  • Should not contain ANY personal information (e.g., dependent care inaccessibility challenges, personal or dependents’ health information, etc.).
  • Should describe the impact that COVID-19 has had on workload and professional opportunities and the resulting impact on faculty productivity, performance and trajectory in each of the relevant areas of specialization (research and creativity, teaching, mentoring, service, awards).
  • Should describe 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.
  • Should not be longer than two pages.
  • May detail different kinds of professional impact on faculty work (negative and/or positive effects).

Faculty members who include personal circumstances in their COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement will be required to revise their statement to omit personal information.

What are examples of professional impacts that can be included in COVID-19 Professional Impact Statements?

Keeping in mind all facets of our faculty members’ workload and professional opportunities depending on faculty title and rank (research, teaching, service, mentoring, etc.) there are many different possible effects (negative and positive) that COVID-19 might have introduced including but not limited to the following broad examples about changes in:

  • 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

Below we offer some examples of potential professional impacts that might have disrupted faculty members’ typical workloads, opportunities, workload distributions, accomplishments and performances. The COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement should highlight these impacts while explaining how the faculty member is handling or handled them and how they might redress the impact (if needed) in the future.

Teaching and Mentoring Examples

  • Moving class online might have led to negative impact in terms of re-distribution of workload away from scholarship
  • Impact on student CIS 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.)

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.)
  • – FRA 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 workload foci intruded on research or creative performance time

Service Example

  • 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.)

How are personal impacts from COVID-19 handled in my review materials?

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced personal challenges for many faculty members and those impacts are addressed by the faculty member designating periods during which their productivity was negatively impacted because of the 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 the number of effective years of service in rank, not the total time in rank.

What should I do if I’m unsure whether I need a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement?

Even if you do not think you need a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement, it is always useful to document COVID-related professional challenges that have impacted your opportunities and workload and ultimately your productivity, performance and trajectory while they are happening so that you will not have to rely on your memory to compose the content for future evaluation statements.

Is a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement optional or required?

The COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement is optional for each of the types of faculty review (annual, mid-probationary, promotion and tenure, and comprehensive periodic review). Each unit (department, college, school) will have their own policy about whether a Statement should be included in core review materials (“dossier”) or in supplemental materials. The host unit must clarify how they will interpret a lack of a Statement in a faculty member’s review materials. Faculty should check with their supervisor (department or division head or dean) about whether the Statement should be included as part of core or supplemental review materials.

Do I have to include a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement?

No. COVID-19 Professional Impact Statements are optional. If a faculty member wants to frame the impact of COVID-19 on their workload and professional opportunities and they do not want to compose a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement, then they can include relevant information as part of their other candidate statements. For example, the vast majority of faculty teaching during spring 2020 and through spring semester 2022 had their teaching impacted by COVID-19. That professional impact can be documented in teaching statements (for promotion and tenure) or in teaching materials more generally (e.g., for annual, comprehensive periodic or mid-probationary review). See previous sections above for examples of potential professional impacts. Similarly, the impact can be captured in other statements (e.g., research, service, advising, honors) and review materials. And note that while much of the disruption was detrimental to conventional workload and performance, there were some positive professional benefits experienced by some faculty that can also be highlighted (e.g., some faculty working in fields related to pandemics, etc.). Last, as with any professional challenges that faculty might experience, faculty should still document the challenges and how they were handled and plans for how they will be overcome to contextualize faculty members’ records.

In which kinds of faculty review can a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement be included?

The University has determined that candidates for promotion and tenure review may include a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement in their supplementary materials in accordance with the relevant year’s General Promotion and Tenure Review Guidelines.

Each unit (department, college, school) will have their own policy about whether to include a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement in core or supplemental review materials for other types of faculty review (annual, mid-probationary, comprehensive periodic reviews).

For which academic year should COVID-19 Professional Impact Statements be included?

The pandemic directly started impacting work in spring, 2020. Inclusion of a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement will be optional for any academic year from 2020 on in which the faculty member’s professional workload and opportunities has been impacted by COVID-19.

When will COVID-19 Professional Impact Statements no longer be accepted?

The pandemic directly started impacting work in spring, 2020. Inclusion of a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement will be optional for any academic year from 2020 on in which the faculty member’s professional workload and opportunities has been impacted by COVID-19.

Is there a standard format for COVID-19 Professional Impact Statements?

Faculty should check with their unit (department, college, school) to find out whether there is a standard format for COVID-19 Professional Impact Statements beyond the two-page limit and the content restrictions (e.g., no personal impacts) as detailed above.

How do I include a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement in my promotion and tenure dossier and other faculty review materials (like mid-probationary review, comprehensive periodic review and annual review)?

The University has determined that candidates for promotion and tenure review may include a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement in their supplementary materials in accordance with the relevant year’s General Promotion and Tenure Review Guidelines.

Each unit (department, college, school) will have their own policy about whether to include a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement in core or supplemental review materials for each other type of faculty review (annual, mid-probationary, comprehensive periodic reviews

If I received an extension to my probationary period or personal circumstances flag for COVID-19, may I still include a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement in my tenure dossier?

Yes, you may include a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement whether or not you have received either an extension to your probationary period or a personal circumstances flag. The Statement captures the professional impact. The extension or flag identifies personal impact.

How does COVID-19 change faculty review and promotion standards?

COVID-19’s impact does not change the standards for review and promotion, nor is it meant to be an explanation for not meeting standards.

Should faculty review committees assume that all faculty have been equally impacted by COVID-19?

No. Even within the same discipline, it should not be assumed that the direct professional impact of COVID-19 on faculty workload and professional opportunities and how that has influenced faculty performance and trajectories has been the same. The COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement should provide the relevant information and context for the individual faculty member.

What should a unit (department, school, college) share with its faculty about the submission of a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement?

The University has determined that candidates for promotion and tenure review may include a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement in their supplementary materials in accordance with the relevant year’s General Promotion and Tenure Review Guidelines. Each college / School / Unit CSU) should clarify:

  • The CSU’s policy about inclusion of a COVID-19 Professional Impact Statementin core or supplemental faculty review materials for each other type of faculty review (annual, mid-probationary, and comprehensive periodic reviews)
  • COVID-19 In addition to the two-page limit and content restrictions as noted above, the CSU should clarify any additional formatting requirements that they have for the Statement
  • The CSU should clarify how a failure to include a Statement will be interpreted (e.g., that COVID-19 has had no substantial professional impact on faculty workload and professional opportunities).
  • CSU leadership should work with the review committees (before the review starts) to clarify how to use COVID-19 Professional Impact Statements ’ content to contextualize their review. This includes informing faculty review committees that
    • The University’s response to COVID-19’s impact on faculty cannot change standards for review
    • For faculty who have a year flagged for a personal circumstance (either through a probationary period extension or an approved personal circumstances flag (for COVID-19 or other personal circumstances), that year should not be included in the denominator for accomplishments for the timeframe under review
  • CSUs should use the annual review process as an opportunity
    • to identify faculty who are struggling and find ways to offer them access to resources [e.g., mentor(s)] to support their future professional development, and also
    • to notice the faculty who are finding ways to thrive professionally to acknowledge their performance and contributions.

Beyond possible inclusion of the COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement, are there any other best practices that my unit might consider as a part of annual review when the year under review coincides with COVID-19?

The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant changes in teaching modalities across UT Austin beginning in spring 2020 and continuing through spring 2022.  Review committees must carefully interpret Course Instructor Survey (CIS) / Course Evaluation Survey (CES) results from this time period in light of the multiple disruptions resulting from the pandemic.

How should review committees use information shared in COVID-19 Professional Impact Statements?

Review committees should adhere to the following guidance:

  • Use the COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement to contextualize the faculty candidate’s performance and contributions given the pandemic’s disruption of faculty workload and professional opportunities.
  • COVID-19’s impact does not change the standards for review and promotion.
  • If a faculty member reveals details of personal circumstances (beyond timeframe for a personal leave) then the review committee must bring that to the supervisor’s attention so that the Statement can be revised to exclude the personal circumstance information by the candidate before the committee conducts its review.
  • As with any review even in non-pandemic times, if a tenure-track faculty member receives a tenure clock / probationary period extension, that should frame the period of review such that it does not include the year during which the extension occurred.
  • If a tenured associate professor or professional / non-tenure-track faculty member’s record includes an approved personal circumstances flag during their time in rank, then that should frame the period of the multi-year review such that the review does not include the year that was flagged.
  • The review committee should acknowledge that COVID-19 has not affected faculty workload and professional opportunities equally and should use evidence from the COVID-19 Professional Impact Statement to contextualize the review of an individual faculty member.
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