A new version of this site was created, following the June 24 Bylaws update. This is now the ARCHIVED site.
In effect as of Spring 2020, candidates standing for evaluation have the option to include a brief opening passage in the Self-Report in the form of a Covid Impact Statement. The purpose of such a passage would be to provide the evaluators the necessary context to understand whatever concrete effects the pandemic rendered on the candidate’s work that is measured against the College’s standard institutional and departmental expectations. Such effects may include, but are not limited to, disruptions to or cancellations of research opportunities, inability to travel for the purposes of on-site scholarship (labs, field sites, etc.), professional time reallotted to new and/or intensified pedagogical demands, increased/different childcare responsibilities, and-- although this is only to be divulged at the candidate's discretion-- any health complications as a result of the pandemic.
The goal is not to insist upon more documentation in the file, but instead to create space within the framework of the bylaws to be matter-of-fact about how the pandemic may have influenced the candidate's professional work at the time of formal evaluation. Some candidates may feel that their self-reports have already done the work of addressing those issues, or that such discussion is not helpful in the presentation of their evaluation file. To reiterate, there is no official expectation that files include a COVID Impact Statement; rather, this is an option to be exercised at the candidate’s discretion.
The self-report is a reflection on 1) teaching (and/or librarianship), 2) scholarly, professional, and/or creative activities, 3) service to the College, and 4) goals for the future (note that you may want separate "goals" after each of the sections above or you may prefer to conclude with a summative section on future goals that addresses goals in all three pillars). The report should go beyond the info presented in the CV and provide context for other the other elements of the file. In other words, it should NOT be a list of what you have taught or done in a narrative format--it should be narrative that gives context to those elements that you feel are most important to your evaluation and that provides meaningful reflection on those elements.
While the by-laws suggest a maximum length of 3000 words, two points help frame this:
candidates should feel free to use as much space necessary to adequately tell their story;
that said, an overly wordy self-report does nothing to strengthen the file. The candidate should refrain from just filling up space in an effort to cloud a weak case.
Additionally, candor and self-reflection are more valuable than salesmanship in the self-report. No one is expecting perfection on the road to tenure (or any stage of one's academic career, for that matter). If there were bumps along the way, the self-report should address them: what were the issues, what did you take away from the experience, and what's the state of things now?
Regarding formatting of the document, consider your evaluators' ease of reading as a guiding principle. For that reason, you're strongly encouraged (but not required!) to consider hyperlinking your self-report discussion of the file's contents to that particular place in the website or to particular documents on the site, so the evaluator can quickly follow up and see the example of what you've described. Within the self-report, simply highlight the relevant word, and in the menu above the text box, select the "link" icon. That will give you a drop-down menu to either select one of the other pages in the website (so your discussion of a course syllabus could be linked to the "Course Materials" page) or you can also fill in a specific URL (linking the word "course syllabus" to the shareable Google Doc of the syllabus you've included in the "Course Materials" section). Candidates may also make (moderate!) use of such stylistic markers as bold font and subheads to ensure that especially important themes are visually prominent.
For ease of inclusion, the self-report may be drafted as a Google Doc and then added on this page using the "Insert" menu, under "Google Docs." Any subsequent editing done to the self-report will automatically be reflected within the Google Site.
IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that once the file has been submitted, however, no further changes on the self-report may be made, or any other document included within the file.