The pandemic and beyond: a guide for UNM faculty
Welcome to “The Pandemic and Beyond,” our guide to the policies, procedures and opportunities for UNM faculty. Our guide also includes research on COVID being done at UNM and across the country. You can also visit the UNM COVID page. Please note we have archived our original page dedicated to UNM’s COVID response.
Policies for UNM faculty
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Faculty at UNM have flexibility in how they choose to discuss COVID-19 impacts on their progress in annual reviews. This memo remains in effect and applies to this year’s annual review process. Some of the options include discussing the impact of COVID-19 in research, teaching, and service statements, adding an overall impact statement as a supplementary document, or using a checklist. See an example here, which includes referencing lists of potential impacts; or not discussing it.
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The UNM administration and UA-UNM faculty union have been addressing the impact of COVID-19 on faculty through a variety of policy and process changes. Read our summary of important changes here. You can also read the Provost’s Promotion’s Tenure Guidelines.
One important change is that there is a new template for letters going to external referees. This template is the result of a discussion with main campus chairs last fall, recommendations from studies of the pandemic impact, and from our evaluation of UNM’s parental leave policy. The template does the following:
— Reminds referees about the pandemic (this will be more important in the coming years)
— States that referees should consider that the candidate is coming up at the right time for our institution and not pay attention to time since degree or time in rank (this addresses issues related to any sort of tenure extension and variations in time for promotion)
— Does not ask that candidates be compared to other scholars of similar experience (particularly important in the light of differential pandemic impacts)
The Provost has stated that faculty have flexibility in addressing (or not) the impact of COVID-19 in annual and milestone reviews. Some of the options include discussing the impact of COVID-19 in research, teaching, and service statements; adding an overall impact statement as a supplementary document; using a checklist (see an example); referencing lists of potential impacts; or not discussing it. -
Dr. Pamela Cheek, UNM’s associate provost for student success, has compiled sample syllabus language for faculty related to COVID and other important topics. See her suggestions.
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See the following email from UNM IT for information on using Canvas over the summer:Hi all,Welcome to the CANVAS_INSTRUCTOR-L list for the Summer 2023 semester! Information about Canvas is available at canvasinfo.unm.edu. We will use this listserv as an avenue for important communications regarding UNM Canvas.General InformationYou and your students can access Canvas at canvas.unm.edu. For more, see How to Log into Canvas. For Canvas documentation, tips, and things to be aware of see UNM Canvas Resources for Instructors.Make Sure Students Can Access Your Courses in CanvasPlease review the Start-of-Semester Checklist. It includes instructions for all the important tasks required each term, such as how to “Web-enhance your Banner Course in Canvas” and “How to Publish” your course so that when it opens, your students will have access to it.
Summer course sections that are Published in UNM Canvas will open for students on the start date as shown in the LoboWeb class schedule (see also FastInfo answer 2371). For most summer classes, the official start date falls on Monday, June 5th.Using Content from UNM Learn in CanvasFor information about using content from UNM Learn courses in Canvas, see Course Migration Options and Migration Cleanup Instructions. If you need content migrated for your Summer 2023 course from a course in Learn that is older than Summer 2021, please submit your request as soon as possible; our normal processing time is two to five days, but we anticipate there may be delays around the start of the term due to a high volume of requests. (Tip: If you use a migrated course from Learn in Canvas, review your content for any mentions of Learn or Learn documentation links and update that information for Canvas.)
Section Groups
Do you have multiple sections you would like to combine into one UNM Canvas course? See information on Section Groups. If you plan to group your sections in Canvas, it is important to submit your request at least a week before the class start date to allow time for processing. Once sections are grouped, you will lose access to any content developed in the original course sections, so it is important to either have that content in a Temp course or to export and download any content you want to keep from the sections in the request prior to submitting the form. Sections should be grouped prior to the start date for the course to avoid loss of student work.
Managing Course Assistants
Those with the Teacher role in Canvas can now use the +People tool to add or remove Designers and TAs in their current and future Banner and Temp courses. Note: Course Assistants cannot be added to Sandbox courses. For past term or migrated courses, contact UNM Canvas Support.
Third-party Tool IntegrationsNumerous third-party tools, such as Ally, Turnitin Similarity, Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor, Zoom, Kaltura Media tools, and RedShelf are available for use in Canvas. For a full list and links to documentation, see the External Apps page.
Additional Resources- Support: You and your students can always find help using the “Help” button in the left Canvas global navigation menu. Additional information is available on How to Get Support.
- Student Resources: Students can be directed to Student Help Resources and Introduction to Canvas.
- Instructor training: See How to Get Training for recommendations and instructions on accessing the extensive Canvas training library. Also, see the UNM Center for Teaching and Learning’s schedules for Workshops and Open Labs.
- What’s New: New Canvas features are available to use in your summer courses. Up-to-date information about what’s new is always posted on the What’s New in UNM Canvas page.
- Outages and Alerts: For information about issues that may be impacting Canvas, see System Status & Alerts.
- Terms of Use: Please be aware of the UNM Canvas Terms of Use.
We hope these resources are helpful as you prepare your summer courses.
Sincerely,
UNM Canvas Support -
A 2020 policy at UNM allows an extension of the tenure clock to acknowledge the significant impact of COVID on research and scholarship. See this document for the policy and frequently asked questions.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR FACULTY
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UNM data show that during the pandemic, many faculty members spent less time on research and scholarship and related professional development as they revised their teaching and dealt with new and different demands in their home lives. As we transition out of the pandemic, the WeR1 Faculty Success Program seeks to support UNM faculty in new and creative ways.
The overarching goals of the WeR1 program are to:
— Modify institutional policies and processes to support faculty retention and advancement, increase transparency, decrease administrative burden, and work towards balanced service and teaching loads;
— Create structures that acknowledge and address the impact of the pandemic, which may last well into the next decade;
— Provide resources that allow faculty to transition, rebuild, recover, and/or refocus their research, scholarship, and creative work, through support that encompasses both small steps and expansive interdisciplinary initiatives;
— Develop new mechanisms for recognizing faculty success in all areas of the university’s mission;
— Build communication, collaboration, cooperation, and community across all UNM campuses.
Explore currently available opportunities below and visit the UNM Research page to see others.
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ECURE is an NSF-funded grant designed to leverage UNM’s research mission to enrich undergraduate education in STEM general education and portal courses. It is led and supported by Academic Affairs, the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Division of Equity and Inclusion, and the Office of Student Affairs. ECURE is based on the following key concepts:
— Engaging students in undergraduate research (UGR) experiences will positively impact their science literacy, science identity, and research self-efficacy, as well as their likelihood to persist and graduate at UNM.
— Engaging students in UGR in general education and portal courses will allow us to serve more students than co-curricular programming alone, and will help students connect course content to professional, community and research applications.
— Engagement in undergraduate research can be offered at varying levels of research immersion. These levels range from students learning about research without actually conducting research to students implementing all stages of their own authentic research projects (see descriptions of the levels below). All levels of early research immersion are useful to achieving desired student outcomes described above, and to creating more effective and diverse pathways to more advanced co-curricular research engagements within their majors.
To this end, ECURE supports instructors in incorporating undergraduate research components into their general education and portal sections, and studies the impact of these enriched engagements on student perceptions and behaviors.
Learn more.
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The FaST program provides tenure-track and tenured faculty with a reduced teaching load to enhance their capacity to bring their research, scholarship, and creative activities to the next level. This program provides funding for faculty to receive either a one-semester, one-course reduction in their teaching load or support for a graduate project assistant (PA) to assist with course-related duties (grading, office hours, preparation of course materials, etc.). Main campus, tenured and tenure-track faculty in all disciplines are eligible to apply. Faculty who previously received FaST support are not eligible to apply.
Applications for Spring 2024 teaching reductions are due May 26, 2023. See the RFP or the InfoReady link.
RESOURCES ON COVID AND OTHER PUBLIC HEALTH TOPICS
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The CDC offers information on COVID symptoms, isolation recommendations, treatment options and more.
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There is a lot to consider in terms of how the end of public health emergency will impact your access to COVID vaccines, testing and treatment. Read this roundup from the Washington Post.
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The New Mexico Department of Health is maintaining its COVID cases tracker. It also keeps track of flu activity.
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You’ve probably noticed that headlines related to COVID-19 today are more likely to focus on long COVID than the crisis created by the global pandemic of the past few years.
That’s because long COVID is significantly affecting millions of people as well as our economy and workplaces. And we all have a lot to keep learning about it in terms of who gets it, what the symptoms are and how we can support colleagues with the disease. See our mini course on long COVID to get started.
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The CDC maintains its COVID vaccine page with the latest research and information.
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This frequently updated website contains information on COVID, long COVID and respiratory viruses from epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina. Some free articles, and some by subscription only.
IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC ON SCHOLARSHIP AT UNM
The pandemic has dramatically changed how all of us work. Faculty who are juggling teaching, research and more face new challenges, including those that stem from time lost during the height of the pandemic. We know from our Pandemic Impact Report that many of these issues including feelings of burnout and barriers to scholarship still linger and will require ongoing attention. Read our report and see the coverage of it in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
UNM RESEARCH ON COVID and PANDEMICS
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A research project involving three collaborative research centers at UNM Health Sciences aims to learn the systematic, social, and cultural factors that have led to the inequities in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team for the project, known as Wide Engagement for Accessing COVID-19 Vaccine Equity (WEAVE NM), includes UNM’s Transdisciplinary Research, Equity and Engagement Center (TREE Center), Center for Participatory Research (CPR), and the Center for Native American Health (CNAH). It is funded by the National Institute of Health’s Community Engagement Alliance (NIH CEAL).
According to the project, “data shows huge disparities, like Latinx and Native communities composing over 60% of COVID-19 related deaths, while the white population only formed 1% of deaths in New Mexico. A similar pattern is reflected in the COVID-19 infection and hospitalization rates of our state. With no immediate end in sight to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is vital to identify systematic, social, and cultural norms that are leading to COVID-19 vaccine inequities and clinical trial participation in our BIPOC communities. Working together with those directly affected will be key to the goal of addressing these life-threatening issues and developing a more equitable health structure in New Mexico.” The project includes community-based participatory research, a community survey and narratives from community members. See the stories and learn more on the project’s website.
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Researchers at UNM, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico State University, University of Kansas, Gorgas Memorial Institute in Panama, and the Center for Research on Health in Latin America are developing a new model for predicting pandemics as part of a $1 million NSF planning grant. Read more in the UNM Newsroom or see the project’s website.
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Monica Rosas Lemus, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology is looking at the molecular makeup of COVID-19 in the hopes of finding targets for vaccines. Read more in the UNM Health Sciences Newsroom.
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UNM researchers were part of team that published a new study in JAMA detailing the failure of two investigational drugs to treat lung injury resulting from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Read the story.
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See our story from 2020 about Women in STEM at UNM who were working to combat COVID during early parts of the pandemic.
NATIONAL RESEARCH ON FACULTY AND COVID
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This 2022 news report explores how educators are affected by long COVID.
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This 2021 research from the University College Utrecht looks at some ways to continue supporting faculty.
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This 2021 report by Northwestern University considered immediate and predictable long-term disruptions in faculty productivity.
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This 2020 report by the Chronicle of Higher Ed looks at the impact of the pandemic on faculty, looks at how faculty are responding to the early challenges for faculty well being.
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This 2022 data infographic contains stats from a student survey of how faculty are responding to the pandemic.
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This 2021 survey at the University of Michigan looked at career trajectory, postponement of tenure review, commitment to academia, and ways to mitigate impacts.
OTHER COVID RESEARCH
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This review of literature looks at key findings including the overlap between COVID and other conditions, the variable onset of symptoms, long COVID in children, and the impact of vaccinations.
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This YouTube video series explores a wide variety of COVID research.
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This news article looks at how researchers are starting to look more closely at how the disease affects the brain and nervous system.
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This in-depth reporting series by Axios News looks at several aspects of long COVID.
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This news story looks at how employers are rethinking workforce accommodations amid the presence of long COVID.
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The authors of this piece urge that more needs to be done for students with long COVID.