Sabbaticals

Policy: Article XIII, Title E of the “Policies” of the Board of Trustees stipulates that the  objective of a sabbatical leave "is to increase an employee's value to the University and  thereby improve and enrich its programs.” Sabbaticals are granted for “planned travel, study, formal education, research, writing, or other experience of professional value.” All  requests for sabbatical leave should clearly and specifically describe how the proposed project(s) will meet the criteria in the “Policies.” All requests should be accompanied by a current curriculum vitae and by 1) the ballots and commentary from the  Department Personnel Committee; 2) the recommendations of the appropriate department chair or director, dean, and Provost/VPAA; and 3) the applicant’s response(s) if any. The chair’s letter should clearly state how the faculty member’s teaching, advising, and other responsibilities will be covered during the sabbatical.  

Eligibility: According to the “Policies” Article XIII, Title E, section 3, “Academic employees having continuing appointments and college administrative officers not in a negotiating unit established pursuant to Article XIV of the Civil Service Law who have completed at least six consecutive years of service within the University or who, if they previously had a sabbatical leave, have completed at least six consecutive years within the University from the date of return from their last sabbatical leave shall be eligible for sabbatical leave. In  computing consecutive years of service for the purpose of this section, periods of vacation  leave and periods of sick leave with salary shall be included; periods of leaves of absences, other than vacation and sick leave with salary, and periods of part-time service shall not be  included but shall not be deemed an interruption of otherwise consecutive service.”

Notice: Although the Academic Calendar delineates the application deadline, this date - with guidance about the application process and timeline - will be a routine outreach item each year. The following venues are recommended: 

● Academic Affairs LISTSERV distribution (recommend 1^st week in September). ● Information item at Academic Leadership meetings in September/October, with guidance to Chairs/directors to disseminate and advise in their units. 

● The PDC (Professional Development Center) will host a panel annually, in advance of the annual sabbatical application submission deadline. The panel will be comprised of cross-discipline faculty who have completed one or more sabbaticals.  The panel members will relate their personal experiences with sabbaticals as relevant to their professional development. PDC staff will disseminate information about the application/approval process. The event will be advertised on the usual  PDC calendar. 

● All unit/department chairs/heads/directors will be asked by their respective supervisors to communicate to eligible faculty: (a) the timeline; (b) application procedures; and (c) information that may be helpful in the application process. 

Terms and Conditions: There are two types of sabbatical leave as provided in the “Policies”  Article XIII, Title E, section 4: 

1. Sabbatical leave for one year at up to half pay. 

2. Sabbatical leave for one-half year at up to full pay. 

Employees on sabbatical leave may, with the prior approval of the President, accept fellowships, grants-in-aid, or earned income to assist in accomplishing the purposes of their leaves. In such cases, the President may adjust sabbatical leave salaries to reflect such income. 

Applications: Requests for sabbatical leave are to be submitted to the Departmental  Personnel Committee by the second Friday in November. The review process will follow the dates published annually in the Academic Affairs Master Calendar. When signing the  application, applicants must agree to the following requirements: 

1. Applicants are required to file a statement outlining the program to be followed identifying any proposed income other than salary from the campus while on leave. 2. Applicants are required to return to the campus for a minimum of one year at the conclusion of their leave. Where justified, the President may request a waiver of this condition, which must be reviewed and approved by the Chancellor. 

3. If the faculty member fails to return for the minimum period, then he/she is obligated to reimburse all salary paid during the leave. 

4. Any substantive change in the proposed activities (following its approval) must be submitted in writing to the Chair and then approved by the Chair, Dean, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and President.  

5. The faculty member is required to submit an activity report as soon as possible following the leave, and no later than the end of the first full semester after return from the leave.

6. In the event of illness or other unplanned circumstances that interrupt an approved sabbatical, the faculty member will be placed on another leave as appropriate, when in the discretion of the President such action is in the best interest of the college and the employee. 

Leave Credits: Employees on sabbatical leave are not eligible to earn or use leave credits during sabbatical leave. 

Review: 

1. Requests for sabbatical leave are subject to review by the applicant's Departmental  Personnel Committee, department chair, dean, and the Provost/VPAA. The final decision is rendered in writing by the President, who shall inform the applicant of the decision. The President shall report approved sabbaticals to the SUNY  Chancellor (Policies Article XIII, Title E, sec. 6). 

2. For the purposes of sabbatical review, the Departmental Personnel Committee shall comprise of all of the tenured faculty regardless of rank, but shall not include any faculty who are applying for a sabbatical in the same year. 

3. In the event that the composition of the DPC is fewer than three faculty members, the department will follow the process of recruiting alternate(s) as outlined in HARP  II.E.2.b. 

4. Should the chair of a department apply for a sabbatical, the chair of the DPC shall make the formal recommendation of the department for all sabbatical requests, including information on class coverage. 

Funding for sabbaticals should be intentional and planned according to the number of sabbaticals anticipated in a given year based on faculty eligibility. Funding should follow  these recommendations: 

1. Funding for sabbaticals should be a line item in the budget annually.  2. Funding for sabbaticals is intended to be used to hire adjunct instructors or other temporary, part-time specialists to cover the work of the faculty member on sabbatical. In exceptional cases, a full-time Visiting replacement may be requested and is subject to the approval of the Provost. 

3. Funding should be calculated at a maximum of the equivalent of 9 credit or contact hours per semester at the appropriate departmental adjunct rate. 

4. Salary savings from full-year, half-pay sabbaticals should be used to offset or supplement the budgeted sabbatical line item, as needed in a given year. 5. All funding is subject to the approval of the Cabinet.  

6. The Provost’s office shall maintain an annual record of the number of sabbatical applications, approvals, and funding, available to the Faculty Senate upon request, for the purposes of budget planning.

A. TIMELINE: The deadline for submission to the Departmental Personnel Committee is the second Friday in November. Review dates will be published annually in  Academic Affairs Master Calendar. 

B. REVIEW PROCESS: Sabbatical proposals will be submitted on the Fredonia  Sabbatical Leave Request form. Proposals will be reviewed by the faculty member’s  Departmental Personnel Committee, following the review procedures defined in  HARP II.E.2. The chair, the dean, and the Provost/VPAA add their recommendations, and all documents (including applicant responses, if any) are forwarded to the  President, who makes the final decision. 

C. REVIEW CRITERIA:  

1) Sabbaticals will be reviewed in the context of the merits of the proposal.  

2) The “merits of the proposal” are judged according to SUNY policy objective “to increase an employee's value to the University and thereby improve and  enrich its program.” Also according to policy, “sabbatical leaves shall be granted for planned travel, study, formal education, research, writing or other experience of professional value”(“Policies” Article XIII, Title E, sections 1-2). 

3) Applications must describe the program of study or research, the expected results of the project, and relationship of the project to departmental, college/school, or university strategic goals. 

D. APPLICANT RESPONSE: At each level of review, the faculty member will receive a  copy of the votes and comments (DPC) or the recommendation letter (chair, dean, provost). The faculty member will have five days from receipt to submit a response to be included at the next level of review. The decision of the President is final. 

E. PRIORITIZATION: in the event that not all sabbaticals can be funded in a given year, priority will be granted in the following order: 

1) The project’s potential “to increase an employee's value to the University and thereby improve and enrich its program” and its relation to departmental, college/school, or university strategic goals. 

2) Time-sensitive proposals (e.g. a pending grant, conference, or publishing deadline, collaborative projects, etc.). Applicants will have the opportunity to make their case if this situation arises. 

3) Those with the greatest number of years since their last sabbatical leave.

In accordance with the “Policies” Article XIII, Title E, sec. 5, “upon return, the applicant will  submit to the chief academic officer a detailed report of professional activities and  accomplishments while on sabbatical leave.” This report is to be submitted to the department chair no later than the last day of classes of the semester in which the faculty member returns from sabbatical. The chair will forward it to the appropriate dean, who will in turn forward it to the Provost. The chairperson and Dean shall append their comments and evaluations indicating whether the conditions under which the leave was granted have been met. The dean shall provide the faculty member with a copy of the comments at the same time they are submitted to the Provost. Faculty members who dispute the comments and evaluations by the chairperson and Dean may appeal directly to the Provost within 10 days after receiving their copy of the comments and evaluations.  

Faculty members returning from leave who do not file this report in the prescribed time period will be ineligible for any financial support for professional development (including campus grants or travel funds) until the report is filed. If, in the judgment of the Provost, the report indicates that the conditions under which the leave was granted were not met, or that the sabbatical activities did not include “planned travel, study, formal education, research, writing, or other experience of professional value,” the Provost may determine, after consultation with the dean and chair, that the faculty member should be ineligible for future sabbaticals or professional development funds.  

On an annual basis, the Provost will compile a complete list of the professional activities and attainments of faculty members on leave during the relevant time period. This list will be widely distributed and available to the public. 

• Some General Advice

🖉Sabbatical applications are like grant applications, only more so: Your primary audience is unfamiliar with your topic and almost assuredly your entire field of study. You have to imagine an intelligent but uninformed audience.  Explain everything, especially what makes your project an important contribution to the field.  Have a colleague from a different discipline read it. 

🖉Explain how what you produce on your sabbatical will benefit Fredonia.  Fredonia will be paying you to not teach or do service (and you are really valuable to the University). Why is it worth it to the university to do that?  This part of the sabbatical application is critical, and should be plainly stated, easily found, and tied to things that the university and the department value. 

🖉Take the application process seriously.  Prepare carefully. Think about what it will mean to your program, department, and Fredonia as a whole for you to be gone a semester or a year.  Be proactive. Work with your Chair or Dean to solve as many of the problems your absence will cause as you can. This is especially important for people in leadership positions such as committee chairs, advisors to students, and program or department chairs. 

🖉Submit only when you are really ready to make use of the time you are granted to produce something that the university values.  It may be tempting to apply as soon as you are eligible, but bear in mind that if you are not ready to use the time productively and are granted a sabbatical, you probably won’t succeed in accomplishing all you should (or all you promise) which means two negative things.   First, if you’re an associate professor, you will still have to accomplish whatever you promised in order to get promoted (likely).  Second, your subsequent sabbatical applications will be met with more skepticism.  You also will likely find it frustrating to have time off from teaching and service which you can’t wisely use. 

• Some Specific Advice 

1.    Decide what you want to do given the time available; be reasonable about what you can actually accomplish in the one semester/one year.
2.    Start planning early.  It is not unusual to start planning several years ahead.  
3.    Prepare early and carefully.  Get started on your projects so that you can show that you are not starting from scratch.  For example, give conference papers that you want to develop further during your sabbatical, obtain a book contract or expression of interest, or obtain approvals necessary for doing your project(s).
4.    Focus your writing on Clarity and Audience.  You need to remember the readers are not specialists in your field and they don't know the terminology or what's cutting edge.  You have to tell them in words they will understand.  
5.    Use numbers or bullets to separate out the parts of your proposal.   White space is a good thing; it helps the reader notice and follow your key points.
6.    Tie what you want to do with what you've done in the past, so that you can show a record of success.  Don't hesitate to boast about what you have accomplished! For example, if you've written a book, include a favorable review. If you have a book chapter, provide the URL of the book or include a book review that mentions your contribution favorably.
7.    The campus does not grant sabbaticals for the following:
      -    Textbook creation, unless it is specifically OER
      -    Curricular creation and revision
 

Librarians with faculty status are equally eligible for sabbatical leave. According to the  “Policies” Article II Definitions (i) and (j): 

(i) “’ Academic Staff.’ The staff comprised of those persons having academic rank or  qualified academic rank.” 

(j)“’Academic Rank.’ Rank held by those members of the professional staff having  the titles of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, and  assistant instructor. . . and rank held by members of the professional staff having the  titles of librarian, associate librarian, senior assistant librarian, and assistant  librarian.” 

Because their job duties require full-time, on-site work for twelve months, their leave and replacement costs will differ from teaching faculty. Library faculty will also follow a  modified approval procedure. 

1. Duration: A half-year sabbatical leave at full pay for library faculty will encompass  50% of the working days in a given contract year, taken consecutively. 

2. Review and Approval: the Library Personnel Committee acts in the role of the  Departmental Personnel Committee. Ballots and comments are then forwarded to  the Chair of the Library Faculty for review and approval and then to the Director of  the Library, who serves in a role equivalent to the dean for the purposes  of sabbatical review. 

3. Coverage: coverage should be devised by the Director of the Library as economically as possible, with part-time hiring and reassignment of duties if feasible. However, it is to be expected that full-time, temporary hires will be necessary in most cases to replace the work of library faculty on sabbatical leave.