Excerpt: "Honestly, balancing work and home responsibilities is a relentless task. To genuinely support vulnerable faculty members, particularly women faculty of color with children and/or dependents, a paradigm shift must occur that affirms equity in higher education. Higher education must acknowledge those faculty members who are significantly disadvantaged during a pandemic: mothers, people of color, women, professor parents and caregivers. Disregarding the effects of intersectionality on the tenure and promotion process during a pandemic is both reckless and irresponsible.

Beyond lip service, higher education must craft and enact language and policies that affirm the long-term effects of this pandemic on faculty career trajectories, with consideration of race and gender, as these groups are historically marginalized. I am proud to be affiliated with the University of Massachusetts at Boston College of Education, which is doing just that. Specifically, it is drafting COVID-19 impact statements for faculty and staff members as a shared governance document with our college. Yet unfortunately, such an approach is not nearly widespread enough, and it’s time for many more institutions to follow suit."