SUBJECT:

CAP Response to COVID-19

Dear Colleagues:

The Committee on Academic Personnel (CAP) recognizes that UC San Diego
faculty are currently facing a precarious and unprecedented moment with
the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and campus efforts to prevent a viral
spread. As a result, research productivity, teaching, and other
scholarly activities are likely to be impacted. Faculty who are
teaching in the Spring Quarter must adapt their courses to remote
teaching. Presentations and attendance at scholarly meetings and
invited talks have been cancelled or postponed, and research efforts
have been curtailed to minimize staff exposures. Community outreach and
other service activities have been disrupted by travel restrictions and
social distancing measures. Additionally, many faculty members must
care for their children and elderly family members due to the closing of
daycares, public schools and other care facilities. The overall stress
and uncertainty of the situation will undoubtedly affect all domains of
academic endeavor.

Please be assured that future CAPs will account for these challenges in
its review of academic files covering the time period impacted by the
virus (where the length of time remains uncertain). We encourage
academic units to begin to employ methods other than student evaluations
to assess teaching effectiveness, which can be gleaned from the Holistic
Teaching Workgroup Report recommendations:

https://senate.ucsd.edu/media/387335/holistic-teaching-evaluation-workgroup-report-8-28-19.pdf
or
https://senate.ucsd.edu/ (see Issues Under Review).

In order to fully document the obstacles encountered in academic
progress, CAP strongly encourages faculty to explain any negative
impacts in teaching, research or service during this time period in
their self-statements. We respectfully request that these
self-statements be included in the materials forwarded to CAP for
review, so that CAP members may incorporate the consequences of the
rapid transitions and events into their academic judgement.

CAP encourages other reviewers to also take these considerations into
account in their assessments of academic files.

Marisa Abrajano Chair, Committee on Academic Personnel Maripat Corr Chair, San Diego Divisional Academic Senate Steven Constable Vice Chair, San Diego Divisional Academic Senate