This begins to address something I've been thinking about: How do we adjust expectations for promotion and tenure in the wake of the pandemic? Clock extensions were an easy (and correct) call, but not enough. The changes in #HigherEducation will affect faculty far longer. 1/n https://twitter.com/DORAssessment/status/1265779991217876993

2/n The opportunity cost of a missed grant deadline, for example, can reverberate for years. The missed opportunities from canceled conferences affect early-career researchers, who are still building their networks, more than senior colleagues, who already have them.

3/n The impacts of the post-pandemic #NewNormal on lab access, teaching modalities, and work-life issues (child care etc) will last years. They affect all academics but land especially hard on contingent faculty and pre-tenure faculty, as well as on women and minorities.

4/n And the impacts of the pandemic on the #mentalhealth of early-career and contingent faculty are severe. Stress/anxiety levels were already far too high, and the crisis has made it much much worse. I sense this in my own colleagues. We urgently need to address this.

5/n As the pandemic changes the way we deliver courses and mentor students, we are asking much of our faculty. They are stepping up for the good of their institutions - but often at significant cost to their research programs. Will they be penalized for their sacrifice?

6/n I hear a lot about short-term measures (e.g. tenure clock extensions) but much less about long-term changes to expectations. Sure, we are still in crisis mode, dealing with immediate challenges, but we need to start thinking about changing long-term expectations.

7/n This is an uncomfortable topic, especially at R1's. Objectors may bemoan "lowering our standards" come tenure time. But these extraordinary times demand that we expand our "standards" to focus on the contributions faculty are making to the survival of their institutions.

8/8 Is your university talking about ways of adjusting long-term expectations? I'd love to hear the ideas that are emerging. /END