Darkness all around: a solid network built by ADVANCE before COVID allowed it to support faculty through the pandemic

As the full impact of the March 2020 orders from government officials to close the doors on life as we knew it were sinking in, ADVANCE team leaders started to get the sense they were facing more "what if" moments.

Their iterative attitude had already come in handy for the group during the early days of its NSF grant work on faculty development years earlier.

But the COVID-19 pandemic was something that would take more than a little creative thinking and "what iffing."

Faculty, used to being center stage in auditoriums and office hours across campus, were relegated to a small square on a screen as classes and meetings went online. Connections to students and colleagues fractured.

Some professional development workshops, a popular mainstay of ADVANCE's work, were cancelled or postponed.

And research that could only be done in labs from Centennial Engineering Center to the Advanced Materials Laboratory to Northrup Hall flatlined.

"Initially, we were going to be closed for three weeks. And then it became a semester, and then it became the summer, and then it became another semester, and another semester."

- ADVANCE Director Julia Fulghum

"Early on, of course, it was 'What is this thing you call Zoom?' We had actual discussions about, 'oh, can we do workshops on Zoom?'"

It turned out they could, and did. Along with people around the world, ADVANCE team members quickly learned about the platform's security settings, the nuances of breakout rooms and polls, and how to hide kids, pets and messy living rooms in the background.

Many of the planned workshops eventually went on, and ADVANCE came up with other ways to connect faculty virtually as well.

By April of 2020, the first 100 New Mexicans had been killed by COVID.

"We knew we had to try to offer a lifeline to as many faculty as we could. First, it was to see how they were doing and what they needed just to make it through. Then, it was to see how their work was being impacted and what support we could offer," Fulghum said.

By late October 2020, 1,000 New Mexicans had died.

Students and faculty wouldn't return to UNM until August 2021.

Even with the gradual return of people in masks, many faculty continued asking for online events.

ADVANCE delivered, and workshops included how to lead yourself and how to parent during a pandemic, interdisciplinary collaboration, scaffolding your research funding portfolio, and developing a sustainable writing practice. The popular UNM Faculty Lightning Lounge events - during which faculty get seven minutes to talk about their research, teaching, or outreach - become a newly meaningful way for faculty to see and hear from colleagues equally marooned around the city.

Along with a yearning to stay connected, faculty had another need: a way to entertain kids who were still out of school in hopes they could steal some work time. So ADVANCE even tried to help there, and worked with a graduate student to provide online dance classes for faculty members' children, just to give parents a break.

There was no respite, however, from the solemn reality of the time.

By October 2021, 5,000 New Mexicans were gone. Scientists were just beginning to understand the cruel disease.

Accomplishments in the most challenging of times

ADVANCE's work during the dark days is among the group's biggest accomplishments, said Melanie Moses, a computer science and biology professor who is on the ADVANCE leadership team.

"One big success was helping the university pivot during the pandemic. ADVANCE played a critical role in providing information to administration and helping shape supportive policies - especially for tenure," Moses said.

ADVANCE provided faculty with updates on changing state and national policies, and the communication team created a dedicated COVID information page on its website. The page had public health information and updates on UNM and public school operations as well.

Separately, the team chronicled work by UNM faculty to study COVID including a look at contributions by Women in STEM and research that found the virus disproportionately was infecting people of color.

Along with providing information, ADVANCE also collected data on the pandemic's impact on faculty.

In spring of 2022, it would pioneer a survey of the effect of COVID on faculty's lives and careers. It found faculty struggling to balance everything. Research, teaching, relationships with students were all impacted.

The survey also showed profound struggles in faculty's personal lives and how that affected their ability to work.

"The COVID survey brought to light the diversity of faculty experiences and burdens - especially caregiving for both children and adults - and different work styles. Some thrived remotely, some struggled. It showed we need to recognize different work styles and burdens."

- Lisa Marchiondo, ADVANCE deputy director

Later, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported on ADVANCE's survey, calling it "a telling portrait of where faculty morale stands today and a rare contemporary comparison to the campus well-being surveys that were in vogue during the height of the pandemic in 2020."

Meanwhile, closed labs and schools - coupled with worries over basic safety and family members - left many faculty unable to work in substantive ways. Academic journals also fell behind on reviews and publications.

All together, these dramatic changes meant faculty surely would not be able to make the progress on the promotion and tenure track in the time typically allowed - and certainly not with added new work that included figuring out how to teach online.

Fulghum and other team members knew there needed to be discussions with leadership about extending the tenure clock. ADVANCE pushed for the move with the Provost's Office so that faculty affected by the pandemic had the time required to succeed.

The change was one of several policies that ADVANCE worked on with administration officials and faculty leaders to support faculty. Other changes included having faculty document the impact the shutdown was having on their research, teaching, and service, and making student evaluations optional.

By March of 2022, the state's death toll from COVID passed 7,000. The number nationwide was approaching one million.

That spring, ADVANCE began collecting data for its Pandemic Impact Report. The survey found faculty feeling burned out, strapped by caregiving obligations, and struggling with scholarship. Among other things, faculty said they faced lingering barriers to scholarship, including 96 percent who said their networking opportunities were affected and 90 percent who said their ability to foster new research collaborations was negatively affected.

The survey spurred ADVANCE and its partners, including UNM Vice President for Research Ellen Fisher, to look more closely at programs that could support faculty and their research once COVID's grip on everything started to loosen.

"Certainly, the (COVID) survey data and other faculty success programs helped to lay the groundwork for the WeR1 Faculty Success Program, along with other work we were doing within the Research Office," Fisher said.

"Partnering with ADVANCE as well as Academic Affairs allowed us to not only develop programs that addressed faculty needs coming out of the pandemic, but also to continue to grow and pivot those initial efforts into new, and more sustainable responses to ongoing faculty priorities and concerns."

Amid the ongoing pandemic and all its uncertainty, the NSF grant funding for ADVANCE - and a no cost extension of the program - had run out. Program leaders made the case that ADVANCE should remain on campus, including to then-Provost James Holloway and to Barbara Rodríguez, then senior vice provost for academic affairs who is now UNM's interim provost.

They agreed, announcing in spring 2022 they would move ADVANCE to the Provost's Office.

"ADVANCE demonstrated clear impact - strong participation, meaningful programming. Over time, it became clear this work was not temporary; it was essential. Institutionalizing ADVANCE ensures continuity. UNM must sustain structures that support our faculty and their successes."

- UNM Interim Provost Barbara Rodríguez

Forward looking faculty searches

By November 2022, more than 9,000 New Mexicans had died from COVID. Regular data reporting to the federal government would end soon after.

Despite the bleak years, UNM leaders knew they had to look ahead to keep the pipeline of faculty hiring on track.

ADVANCE worked with the Provost's Office to ramp up efforts to work with faculty, deans and department chairs on best practices for faculty searches, including increased training and more support.

Rodríguez said the searches are "central to institutional excellence."

"ADVANCE has strengthened our search practices by promoting clarity, rigor, and fairness. The work directly supports UNM's ability to attract top faculty," she said.

Along with the Provost's Office, ADVANCE created a series of workshops on faculty searches that all search committee members are required to attend. ADVANCE also published an online guide to faculty search to help consolidate resources.

Things were busy for ADVANCE, and three new team members joined in January 2023.

But changes ahead from a new federal administration were about to introduce new challenges that would leave faculty needing even more support, especially when it came to continuing the level of research funding to which UNM was accustomed.