In tenure decisions, context matters. New research from Lauren Rivera et al uses an experiment to show that including Covid impact statements in tenure files leads to more favorable decisions, because it helps evaluators recognize structural constraints. sociologicalscience.com/articles-v11...

I wonder about tenure letters. When there is NOT a Covid impact statement in the file, but you know that the type of research a person does was severely affected by Covid (eg, lab shutdowns, in-person experiments moved to online), is it reasonable/ appropriate to mention this in a tenure letter?