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Teaching Load Postponement Application Procedures Obligations |
The sabbatical leave program is the major element of the College's effort to support faculty research. The program is designed to free faculty members from teaching, advising, and College service in order that they may pursue scholarly goals more intensively than is possible while fulfilling their usual obligations to the College.
A sabbatical leave is not compensation for prior service; it is an opportunity granted to those who are eligible and whose research plans are approved by the Provost in consultation with the Committee on Appointments. This program reflects a strong institutional commitment to faculty scholarship and to the relationship between research and teaching, a relationship in which scholarship and teaching inform and enhance each other.
Only tenured members of the faculty are eligible for sabbatical leaves.
Eligibility for the first sabbatical leave is determined as follows:
Members of the faculty who are in their sixth year in a tenure track position may apply for a sabbatical leave for the seventh year while their reappointment review for promotion and tenure is taking place. In determining years of service, please note that the Junior Faculty Leave counts as a year of service, but that leaves of absence, parental leave, family medical leave, special reseach leaves made possible by outside grants, or years in which the tenure clock was stopped do not count toward the required six years of service.
For those faculty whose tenure review will take place during their first or second year at the College, eligibility for the first sabbatical leave and its duration would have been negotiated with the Provost at the time of appointment to the College. For Assistant Professors whose tenure review takes place before their sixth year of service, the first sabbatical will occur after six years of service.
There are two types of sabbatical leaves:
A faculty member taking a semester-long sabbatical is entitled to full salary for that semester. This is, however, contingent upon the individual's having made timely and substantial efforts to obtain significant outside funding to support a leave at least once every seven years. A faculty member who chooses not to seek outside funding is entitled to half the normal salary for the semester. This means the individual's salary for the academic year will be 75% of the normal full-time salary.
In either case, previous sabbatical leaves, leaves of absence, special reseach leaves made possible by outside grants, and parental leaves do not count as years of service toward eligibility. In addition, faculty members who opt for a reduced teaching schedule over a multi-year period can expect to experience some prorated adjustment from the norm.
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The College expects faculty members to contribute to the support for the sabbatical leave program by seeking outside funding. If outside salary support is obtained, it plus the College's sabbatical pay may not exceed the individual's normal full-time salary. All outside funding in support of a leave is to be reported to the Provost. Faculty members on a type b (i.e. one semester) sabbatical who have received substantial outside salary support may negotiate with the Provost to extend their leave (via course reduction or reductions in the non-sabbatical semester). Teaching at another institution or employment of a non-research nature is not normally permitted during a sabbatical. Exceptions to this program must be approved by the Provost.
Faculty members on a type b (i.e., one semester) sabbatical are expected to teach three courses in the non-sabbatical semester.
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If a member of the faculty chooses not to request a leave when he or she is eligible, semesters or years spent teaching during and after the eligible semester or year may not be accumulated for use in a later period. There may, however, be circumstances when there are teaching, research, departmental, or College reasons why it would be better for a faculty member to defer a leave. In such cases, a request should come from the chair prior to the semester in which the leave should ordinarily have been taken. Only after provostial approval can the waiting time for a subsequent leave be reduced by an equivalent period.
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Early in the fall semester, the Provost will send a notification to those faculty members who will be eligible for a sabbatical leave in the subsequent academic year and an application form. Those who are applying for leave should send a letter outlining the scholarly goals which he or she hopes to achieve; summarize briefly the results of the previous sabbatical or other leave; and list the sources of outside funding for which he or she is applying. A second letter in support of the sabbatical leave is required from the department chair, who should assess the significance of the research plans of the faculty member applying for leave and describe the plans of the department for accommodating the leave. For the request to be reviewed, the application form must be completed and submitted to the Provost.
The Provost will not turn down a request for a sabbatical leave for which a faculty member is eligible without consulting the Committee on Appointments. The Provost communicates to the President and the Board of Trustees for their approval the names of those faculty members who have not met all the requirements for an approvable sabbatical leave.
Photocopies of all applications for outside funding and of all notifications of awards are to be provided to the Provost and the Director of Sponsored Research.
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At the conclusion of the sabbatical leave, a report is required outlining the scholarly and professional achievements during the leave period. The report should be addressed to the Provost. Faculty members who have not submitted this report may be denied subsequent leaves.
Faculty on leave are not ordinarily asked to participate in departmental or College affairs, except in the case of the reappointment of a department member junior in rank. In that case, written evaluations will be solicited.
Faculty members who are granted sabbatical leaves are expected to return to the College at the conclusion of the leave for a reasonable period of time, i.e., for at least one year.
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Maintained by the Office of the Provost.
Posted Summer 2001; updated Summer 2006.