Guidelines in Considering Academic Leave Requests

The purposes of academic leaves are to enhance the scholarly productivity of the individual requesting the leave and to benefit the programs of the institution through this activity (see the Faculty Handbook for more extensive discussion). All academic leaves must be justified in the context of these activities, whether supported in part or whole by College funds, paid from other sources, or unpaid. The comments supplied by the chairs on the individual applications and in prioritizing requests are important in aiding our assessments across a number of disciplines in The College. The following lists some of the guidelines used by the Deans Office in evaluating requests and recommending academic leaves to the Provost. These guidelines apply to all tenure-track faculty and to all academic leaves, including Junior Faculty leaves.

  1. A primary assumption is that the importance of an individual fostering his/her own scholarly activities during leaves is balanced by the importance of his/her on-campus presence as a scholar and as a significant participant in teaching and departmental/program activities. Leave plans should be discussed by the chair with faculty as far in advance as possible. It is the responsibility of the chair to prioritize the leave requests, regardless of whether a requested leave is to be supported from College resources or not. It is assumed that the chair has also formulated contingency plans for covering teaching and programmatic needs while faculty are on leave. Funds are not routinely allocated for replacement teaching of the courses of faculty on leave, but requests will be considered in the context of overall staffing needs.
  2. Faculty can expect at a minimum to be eligible approximately every 6 years for one semester of academic leave with full salary, or for one year of academic leave with half salary (hereafter called a College-paid leave).Eligibility for a College-paid leave is evaluated according to the total number of years (consecutive or non-consecutive) that faculty members have been in residence (and performing regular faculty duties) since their last College-paid leave, their first year as tenure-track faculty in the College, or their Junior Faculty leave, whichever is most recent. Other forms of academic leave delay, but do not otherwise effect, eligibility for College-paid leaves.
  3. Faculty are encouraged to apply for leaves that are not funded from College resources and the College seeks to enable faculty who receive outside recognition and support to be on leave. As with College-paid academic leaves, unpaid leaves or leaves funded by external sources must have scholarly justification and be prioritized with all leave requests at the departmental In the case of junior faculty, it is particularly important that the chair weighs the advantages of the individual being on an academic leave (other than a College-paid JFL) relative to other activities important in building a tenure case.
  4. Flexibility exists for supplementing external fellowships of unusual distinction (e.g., Guggenheim) to achieve a fully salaried amount, or, under special circumstances, for salary support beyond that listed above. Requests for College support of salary that fall outside the general guidelines will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
  5. Regardless of the source or amount of financial support (College-paid, externally funded, or unpaid), the expectation is that the maximum a faculty member will be on academic leave is no more than four semesters in any five-year No more than two of these semesters on academic leave will be consecutive except in unusual circumstances (e.g., government service with a required extended term)
  6. Leave requests are due in the Deans Office by the end of January each year. The Dean's recommendations are forwarded to the Provost's Office by March 1; final approval, budgeting and notification occurs in the Provost's Office. Exceptional opportunities that may not have been evident at the time of the annual call will be considered at other times on a case-by-case basis; it is expected that such cases will be rare.