Care and Equity for Faculty
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted nearly every facet of higher education. We recognize shifts in professional duties, household labor, childcare, eldercare, and physical confinement increased faculty care obligations, workloads and stressors. These increases and demands have impacted not only our work lives, but health and mental health. In order to continue to effectively care for and support our students, we must also care for ourselves, our dependents, our communities, and each other. To help address some of the workplace problems that have emerged for faculty, the Care and Equity Task Force, in connection with the Provost’s office and Deans, have developed information and guidelines regarding issues such as course evaluations, promotion, and service reduction. These issues are especially important to address in light of the disproportionate burden faced by women and people of color during the pandemic.
This page contains the following information and links:
- Course Preparation
- Course Evaluations
- Service Reduction
- PDF Spending
- COVID Impact Statements
- Faculty COVID Impact Statement
- Considerations for Instructors Submitting Review Materials During the Pandemic
- Guidelines for Equitable Evaluation
- Considerations for Review Committees During the Pandemic
- DigPed Event Materials
- Considerations when Submitting and Reviewing Faculty Materials during the Pandemic, Brought to You by DigPed at Dearborn and the Care & Equity Task Force video (February 19, 2021)
The Care and Equity Task Force, Provost, and Deans continues to strongly discourage a disproportionate burden of simultaneous course preparations required of an individual faculty member, especially for pre-tenure faculty. They continue to support asking Discipline Coordinators and Chairs to be particularly mindful of this issue.
If faculty have concerns, please consult with your mentor/advocate, discipline coordinator, Chair, Dean, and/or Human Resources.
The Care and Equity Task Force, Provost, and Deans continue to support that course evaluations be “read,” interpreted and understood through the COVID lens and therefore be considered as developmental, rather than evaluative, in nature. The C&E Task Force is working with partners on campus on developing specific resources and training to engage the campus in conversation about how best to accomplish this goal.
- Considerations for Instructors Submitting Review Materials During the Pandemic
- Considerations for Review Committees During the Pandemic
Additional resources on how to "read" course evaluations developmentally
- American Sociological Association - Statement on Student Evaluations of Teaching
- The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine - National Dialogue on Transforming STEM Teaching Evaluation in Higher Education
- ScienceDirect - Interpretun and Using Student Ratings Data
If faculty have concerns, please consult with your mentor/advocate, discipline coordinator, Chair, Dean, and/or Human Resources.
The Care and Equity Task Force, Provost, and Deans advocate for understanding and addressing the impact of service burdens on faculty, especially faculty with more significant responsibilities. In all four colleges, efforts are being made to reduce faculty service burden during the pandemic. This reduction is especially important for faculty with significant family, community or other obligations. Additionally, the Care and Equity Task Force aims to make visible the sometimes invisible and disproportionate service burdens faced by women and men of color.
If faculty have concerns, please consult with your mentor/advocate, discipline coordinator, Chair, Dean, and/or Human Resources.
Specific research- and teaching-related support will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please contact your department chair to make a request.
Faculty may choose to document how COVID and its potential overlap with caregiving has affected their work. The Faculty Covid-19 Impact Statement provides examples of the range of issues that could be included in such a statement, which can be turned in along with their merit, promotion and tenure, and/or LEO evaluation portfolios. Faculty should consult with their Chairs and Dean for more information about how these Impact Statements will be considered in evaluation within their unit.