Dear colleagues,

Last Friday, I stepped outside in brilliant afternoon sunshine for a much-needed moment of reflection. Then, Monday arrived. I’m rapidly warming up to the importance of mindfulness as we continue deeper into a fragile and uncertain semester. I’m so grateful to have had a career in higher education and even more so, to have spent the longest stretch in Missoula, at the University of Montana. I gave a great deal of thought to the juxtaposition of gratitude with the extraordinary challenges we face daily, appreciating the need to balance the realities of the latter with the persistence of the former, from students and colleagues. My reminders arrive daily through email, conversations on the Oval, focused sessions with ECOS, staff, and student leaders, and larger audiences such as Faculty Senate. It’s a common weight of responsibility we share, and my colleagues across shared governance remind me frequently that we need to ensure the academic community is aware of, and encouraged to use the resources available to support you.  Like you, I’ve never felt so overwhelmed. We are living in unprecedented times and I remain genuinely thankful for your hard work over the summer and now at the start of the fall semester. I am mindful that this is an unrelenting work in progress.

I hope that by now you are well connected with resources to help you teach, conduct research, and continue to mentor students on campus and remotely. You should also be aware of resources, for your self-care and well-being. We are all feeling the effects of prolonged stress as we continually adapt to the pandemic in our personal and professional lives. Below you will find a list of available resources that I encourage you to use this semester.

Resources for faculty self-care and well-being

Compensated leave: Faculty who are represented by the UFA and MCFA, please refer to CBAs 15.100 to learn about types of compensated leaves available to you. Did you know that you can request up to 5 days of compensated personal leave (CBAs 15.150) per contract year?

Employee Assistance Program: The Montana University System (MUS) is proud to introduce the Employee Assistance Program (EAP).  The MUS EAP helps you privately work through challenges that may interfere with your work, family, and life in general.  This confidential service is available to all MUS employees and household members, and includes many free resources including a 24-hour crisis hotline, in-person counseling, and online consultations with licensed counselors.

Resources for faculty helping students

Many of us choose the academic profession because of the joy and inspiration we find in mentoring students. Students who are struggling tend to seek guidance from professors who are women and people of color, creating inequities as these faculty take on more emotional labor in supporting students than their counterparts.

I encourage you to actively discuss creating equity in supporting students within your academic units at an upcoming faculty meeting, using the ideas in the Curry Health Center Faculty Toolkit as a starting point for conversation. 

Resources for faculty preparing Individual Performance Records (IPRs)

The Montana University System and the UM Office of the Provost recognize the challenges posed to faculty productivity by the COVID pandemic.

Commissioner Christian issued a one-year tenure clock extension for current probationary (tenure-track) faculty in March 2020.

The Office of the Provost issued a statement for faculty evaluation reviewers, asking them to consider the effect of the pandemic on faculty productivity as they review IPRs this year and in the future. I expect FEC Chairs to discuss these considerations with their members and be mindful of applying these considerations fairly.

Moreover, I encourage faculty submitting IPRs this year and in the future to include a section on how the pandemic has affected your performance. Consider addressing the way the pandemic impacted your teaching, scholarly, and service goals (by preventing you from traveling to share your work with colleagues, for example). In addition, consider providing documentation to help evaluators appreciate ways you have adapted: providing more emotional support to students, participating in training sessions to become a better remote teacher, service on UM committees responding to COVID, etc. Your efforts need to be considered and honored.

I hope you will use some of these resources. If you know of other resources that your colleagues may benefit from, please share them with me so that we can promote them in future communications. Thank you for your hard work this semester. Please take care of yourselves and those around you. And take that moment of mindfulness, with my thanks. I’m sincerely interested in ideas and actions that might help us all in these moments, so I invite you to reach out.

Gratefully,

Reed

This message was sent by the Office of the Provost to all UM faculty.