To: Deans, Department Chairs and Academic Senate Faculty

Dear Colleagues:

As we continue to navigate unexpected challenges such as the recent federal funding terminations/suspensions, we continue to encourage faculty to apply adaptations to help counter the effects of such disruptions. During and following the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic we adopted principles of the Achievement Relative to Opportunity (ARO) framework when preparing and reviewing academic dossiers. This framework allowed for more equitable assessment of faculty career progression and achievements in the context of opportunities available to them. ARO principles, as outlined in the Joint Senate-Administration Mitigating COVID-19 Impacts on Faculty Working Group Final Report (2022), “enable merit and promotion reviews to evaluate candidates fairly based on their individual review-period professional accomplishments by taking into account unexpected or disruptive circumstances during that period that may have curtailed the candidate’s normal ability to achieve expected outcomes.”

When teaching, research, and/or service have been adversely affected by external disruptions, faculty should include such information in their self-statement and/or in a separate impact statement. This allows the faculty member to contextualize any disruptions and overall academic impact, while adding and highlighting information about their efforts to adapt to the external disruption and/or pivot to alternative types of contributions. We encourage faculty and reviewers to use this approach to ensure that advancement review accomplishments are provided the most balanced appraisals. The following describes potential situations and recommendations that may be applied:

• External disruptions may include events such as industry strikes, natural disasters, pandemics, changes in federal or other funding priorities leading to resource terminations or suspensions, and changes in federal or other guidelines adversely affecting university acceptances of awards.
• When work is impacted by such disruptions, faculty are encouraged to consult with their chairs and mentors to identify potential opportunities to pivot their directions, contributions, and portfolios.
• Review committees are encouraged to take these events into consideration, weighing the impact and unavoidability of the disruption as well as the strength of efforts to identify and adopt alternative approaches.
• Chairs and deans are encouraged to contextualize the department-wide or discipline-wide impact of these external disruptions in their letters.
• In formal requests for external evaluations for a dossier, and in consultation with the faculty under review, chairs and deans should incorporate an explanation of the disruption and a request to allow for it, where appropriate, such as the sentence, “In reviewing this dossier, we request that you take into consideration the special circumstance(s) requiring a change in career focus and/or limiting opportunities to achieve conventional milestones, specifically [insert explanation of the circumstance and its impact].”
• Faculty reviewers should continue to evaluate dossiers holistically, ensuring that ARO principles are integrated into merit and promotion considerations. Reviewers should recognize disruptions beyond the faculty’s control; acknowledge alternative forms of scholarly contributions and creative activities; assess achievements relative to available opportunities rather than applying rigid metrics; and apply a flexible balance in evaluating criteria, allowing for the ways external constraints may shift faculty direction.

Examples

Detours are common within faculty careers, and learning to navigate them successfully is a valuable skill. While it can be extremely difficult when the detour is involuntary, times of change are also opportunities for taking stock of research needs, thinking creatively, and learning new techniques. The following are examples of approaches that can be considered or adopted:

1. Faculty focused on a research field targeted for federal cuts may consider:

  a.   Seeking alternative funding sources (independent foundations, state agencies or departmental, school, or campus awards.)

  b.   Shifting to a related field requiring similar skills, such as differentiated instruction, personalized healthcare, or cultural competence.

1. Faculty who lose access to a critical resource (such as loss of an archeological site, equipment supply chain, theater, or tribal community) may explore, not only alternative similar resources, but also opportunities to analyze existing data.
2. Faculty whose dance, music, and gym studios are inaccessible due to a pandemic may create videos of home solo performances or develop new software for low latency synchronization through virtual platforms.
3. Faculty who lose funding due to federal cuts may consider taking on more teaching responsibility and service. A physician-scientist may consider adding more clinical activity.
4. Faculty impacted by disruptions may consider, as examples, attending workshops or taking courses to develop new skills; taking a sabbatical to provide dedicated time to new research; organizing a conference; writing review articles, chapters, or books; mining databases; or taking on editorial service or service to professional societies.

In all instances, faculty are encouraged to reach out to their department chairs for guidance on the process of finding alternative research directions or workarounds. Faculty and reviewers are encouraged to contact the Academic Affairs and Personnel Office for further guidance on preparing or reviewing dossiers impacted by external disruptions.

Sincerely,

Reza Ahmadi
AY 24-25 Chair, Council on Academic Personnel

Linda Demer
AY 25-26 Chair, Council on Academic Personnel

Michael S. Levine
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs & Personnel