COVID-19 tenure clock adjustments?

[old_hat]

Is your university adjusting the tenure clocks of pre-tenure faculty in response to COVID-19? If so, what adjustments have been made? If you were directly affected, were you happy with how the decision was made and how your tenure clock was adjusted? Trying to get a feel for how things are playing out across the nation and if pre-tenure faculty appreciate or resent this extension.

[Morden]

Our institution will offer all pre-tenure people the option of an additional year on the tenure clock, but they don't have to take it. I'm not sure when they have to decide. We're still not sure what to do about missing peer evaluation of teaching forms for this year.

[waterboy]

Our R-1 is offering a no penalty 1 year delay if you want one. Teaching evaluations are happening on-line, if possible.

[Puget]

Yes, we have a 1 year delay if we want it. The details are still being worked out, but it doesn't seem like we will need to decide until when we would normally go up.

The justification is that, at least for those of us doing lab research, our research programs have been severely impacted. As in, no one can be in the lab and the only data collection we can do is online (luckily for me I can do some of that, but other studies are on hold, and lots of folks don't have that option, e.g., in the bench sciences).

Teaching evaluations will not be formally collected this semester, but they have said they will provide a way to collect them so that only we can see them, and can save them and include in our tenure files if we so choose, but no penalty for not doing so.

[Hegemony]

Yes, ours is.

[doc700]

My university also offered a 1 year delay.  I immediately accepted it.

I am an experimental scientist.  100% of the work my group is doing at the moment is experimental and needs to be done in the lab.  In principle we could be "analyzing data" or "writing papers" but we are in the early stages of our efforts since I just started 2 years ago.  There is little data to analyze and no papers to write.  All of the work we need to do is in the lab.  We also had an extended period of waiting for equipment to arrive -- so all of the "read these 10 major papers in the field and give a group meeting" assignments we have previously done in this academic year.  I basically have sent my research group home for vacation for as long as this lasts as there is little productive work we can do.

I personally can continue to work on my grant applications and teaching so my personal work isn't impacted.  But my entire research group and thus research output is sidelined.

[Hibush]

Automatic 1-year extension for assistant professors who have not yet turned in their packages. Opt out is possible, and there is plenty of time to decide. Looks like we will have very few tenure awards in 2021.

[RatGuy]

Our chair held a virtual meeting with us this week. He told us that our Dean says "no changes to the tenure clock," but our chair thinks that might change.

[Golazo]

Our institution will offer all pre-tenure people the option of an additional year on the tenure clock, but they don't have to take it. I'm not sure when they have to decide. We're still not sure what to do about missing peer evaluation of teaching forms for this year.

Same here.

[larryc]

 Optional one great delay,  course evals and peer reviews optional. 

[mamselle]

Do you mean one "year" delay?

Your spell-correct is nearly as insidious as mine, I suspect...

M.

[risenanew]

Our institution will offer all pre-tenure people the option of an additional year on the tenure clock, but they don't have to take it. I'm not sure when they have to decide. We're still not sure what to do about missing peer evaluation of teaching forms for this year.

My giant public system is doing the same. We have up until mid-May to submit if we want that extra year as a cushion.

I'm unsure myself about whether I want to take it as a second-year professor. I've actually been pretty on-top of my game in terms of publications and with the state of higher ed, I feel the sooner I get tenure, the less likely I am to be excised in the event of a crash. But I also don't want to look like I'm underperforming either. It's all just a big mess at this point.

Teaching evaluations will not be formally collected this semester, but they have said they will provide a way to collect them so that only we can see them, and can save them and include in our tenure files if we so choose, but no penalty for not doing so.

All teaching evaluations are optional as well at my college; it's actually up to the professor in question to request it! Again, not sure I want to have one or not -- it may be great for my portfolio or it may amount to a small little bomb. I do appreciate the option, however.

[clean]

As far as  I know, we have not adjusted the clock. However, student evaluations for this term's face to face classes that went online will be done, but not used for evaluation purposes. 

[blueghost]

Optional one-year extension, which would also delay the 3rd-year review for those of us, like me, who haven't had that yet. Not sure what the deadline is, but my chair wants to discuss with me this summer, so it must be later than that.

If we take the extension, we can't go back, other than applying for early tenure, with the higher bar that entails.

Like risenanew says, I'm conflicted between wanting the extra time and wanting to get to tenure quickly for security against economic crash leading to cuts at my university.