January 18, 2022
Colleagues,
Welcome back to a new semester. I hope you had a healthy and restful break. As you enter another challenging semester, please know that I understand how hard you are working, and I am grateful for all you continue to do for our students.
Given the surge associated with the new strain of the COVID-19 virus, and the ongoing disruptions associated with that, I would like to invite you again to consider attaching a COVID-19 supplement to your annual review in Digital Measures – Activity Insight (DMAI) under “Annual Reports: Supporting Comments/Attachments.” Adding this information to your annual review will enable you to document the impact of COVID-19 on your life and your work. As you seek promotion in the future, this will help you to incorporate an understanding of the impact of these extenuating circumstances upon your work trajectory. (Even if you have already submitted your annual report through DMAI, it is not too late to add this supplement).
In the next few weeks, please be as supportive and flexible with your students as you can be to accommodate those who are sick or exposed to someone with the virus. We certainly don’t want to give students an incentive to come to campus while they are sick. If you yourself experience illness, reach out to your chair or dean for help and guidance. I’m hopeful that things will settle down in February.
I’m sure you have heard the curse “may you live in interesting times.” We certainly continue to do that. Perhaps when we emerge on the other side of the worst of this pandemic, we will have learned some things about ourselves and discovered new and better ways to do our work. In the meanwhile, please continue to keep yourself, your colleagues, and students as safe as possible. And again, thank you.
Margaret R. Ferguson, Ph.D.
Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Professor of Political Science
