How department chairs can support faculty during COVID-19: tools, strategies, and limitations.

Abstract:

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the US in late February and early March, campuses closed with very little warning. Faculty across the US and globally faced dramatic changes in their teaching, research, and service. Teaching faculty had to shift their teaching modality to completely remote instruction in a matter of weeks. At the same time, research labs were shuttered, and PI’s had to find ways to mentor and support their students and post-docs as research came to a halt. Simultaneously, faculty with young children suddenly found themselves navigating on-line learning and childcare for their kids. It is clear that this pandemic will impact faculty productivity for years to come. Furthermore, the changes in the rates of submission of papers and funding proposals indicate that the impact is different among different groups of faculty.

As department chairs during the start of the pandemic crisis, we will present strategies we used to support faculty during the initial crisis in spring of 2020. We represent departments from a PhD granting institution, a comprehensive masters degree granting institution, and a small liberal arts college. Although there were differences in the needs of faculty between the different institutions, there were many similarities. We supported faculty through a variety of strategies including: holding town halls for faculty and students, clearly communicating and providing feedback on the fast-changing policies, building support networks for faculty and students, organizing department level workshops on remote instruction, compiling pedagogical resources available on campuses and beyond, etc.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, so do the needs of faculty and departments. We will present our vision for how support should evolve, as the impact on faculty’s tenure and promotion files will continue for years to come. Although we will discuss department level actions, we will also highlight the limitations of this approach. Colleges and Universities must evaluate and enact policy changes that mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on faculty research, teaching and service, and they must recognize that the impacts are not evenly felt among faculty and prioritize equity.