Hi, everyone–

I hope that your working life is shifting peaceably into summer mode. (Southern Hemisphere friends, I wish you a similarly peaceable winter!)

Here’s something new that’s come up in conversations frequently in past weeks. It took several iterations for me to realize quite how new & different this was.

This is the time of year when faculty members come to me with their concerns about going up for tenure in the coming year. (That and procrastination — closely related.) The difference is that now many faculty members have one or more covid-19 clock stoppages available to them. They have a two- or three-year timespan during which they could choose to go up for tenure. They want to know what’s wisest — “going up” as soon as they can or taking another year to write a few more publications, and so on.

Conversations about “when to go up” are common in my line of business — but more typically we have them when faculty members are applying for promotion to “full” professor rank. The stakes are lower at that point (though not as low as people imagine; that’s another conversation).

The balance is far more complicated at this point in faculty members’ careers. We want them to have job stability as soon as possible, but not to take too much of a risk. Layer that with nerves about how covid-19 clock stoppages will be perceived (I *do* have clear-cut guidance on that) and it’s an intense conversation.

All that said — I do love how summer break is a time to empower faculty members & help them set themselves up for success. The conversations are just harder this year.

Are any of you facing this, too? What kinds of topics come up in your conversations?

Who’s ready to go drink a big lemonade on the porch and nap in the sunshine?