Pandemic Panic on the Tenure Track: Why Early Career Scholars Need Transformative Support After COVID-19

Abstract

A quick look at Twitter is enough to fray my nerves these days. Peppered between joyful announcements of promotions, book contracts, and published articles are daily reminders of the pandemic’s unequal impacts. At one extreme, there is the productive-in-the-pandemic bunch. Somehow, these scholars have been able to keep up the pace with their research—sure, they are probably tired and frustrated like the rest of us, but they are still conducting analyses, writing consistently, and submitting and publishing their work where it counts. Then, there are my people— the staying-afloat-during-the-pandemic bunch. Most of us quietly lurk and some-times like, share here and there, and maybe occasionally mock the productive bunch just a little, mostly because we are envious. Pandemic-induced anxiety in ac-ademia is at an all-time high and there are reasons for some of us to panic. Overall, college enrollments in fall 2020 were down 2.2% (Causey et al., 2020), institutions announced massive furloughs (Whitford, 2020), and some colleges facing pan-demic-era budget shortfalls closed permanently (Aspegren, 2021). As institutions respond to revenue losses, much of the burden has shifted to faculty who must adapt materials to new teaching modalities, cope with increased course capacities, and deal with restrictions on research funding and pauses on matching retirement contributions. The pressures of pandemic-era austerity measures come in addition to increased responsibilities at home caring for children, partners, and parents. In one faculty survey, 40% of respondents reported considering leaving their roles due to the impact of COVID-19, with early career academics being the most likely to consider leaving academia, at 48% (Flaherty, 2020). Why might this be? In this arti-cle I share some of my experiences as a woman, mother, first-generation academic, and early career scholar