PROPOSAL 29-96

SABBATICAL LEAVE RECOMMENDATIONS

A.1 Guidelines

1. Academic administrators should be encouraged to promote sabbaticals as an avenue for faculty professional development.

2. Incentives should be implemented encouraging all eligible faculty to take a sabbatical at least once every 10-15 years.

3. Incentives should be implemented enabling and encouraging more faculty in units which are underutilizing sabbatical leaves to take more sabbatical leaves.

4. A "total package" of incentives should be developed and coordinated centrally.

5. Moneys "released" by an individual's sabbatical leave will be left in control of the individual department/school to cover necessary teaching responsibilities.

6. Initial requests for sabbatical leave will be made in writing to the individual's immediate supervisor and to the Provost, so that some record of the proportion of requested leaves to actual sabbatical leaves can be accumulated.

7. Faculty should be encouraged to take multiple-term sabbatical leaves.

A.2 Recommendations

Recommendations which require funding

Establishing two pools of supplemental sabbatical funds. One pool to defray certain expenses for the individual. These funds would be competitive. A second pool of money that could be allotted to departments or programs to defray the additional costs of replacing the faculty member on sabbatical leave. These funds should be based on need and the sabbatical leave record of the unit.

1. Generate a competitive pool of funds, administered by the Sabbatical Leave Committee, for extra expenses, such as travel, housing supplement, or other costs which clearly might hinder a faculty member's ability to take a sabbatical.

Cost for this supplemental fund is an initial $50K, based on three assumptions:

1. The average award per faculty member is $5K for travel, moving and housing;

2. Approximately 50% of applicants for the competitive pool should receive funding based on the quality of their proposals; and

3. The number of faculty taking a sabbatical increases (from 11 to 20 per year).

Supplementary funding for foreign travel should be made available through the Office for International Programs.

2. An additional pool of funds, administered by the Provost's Office, shall be made available to departments, schools, and programs to pay for temporary instructors. The intent of these funds is to provide incentives for those departments, schools or programs in which no or very few faculty have taken sabbatical. This will reduce the pressure to forgo sabbaticals because of teaching assignments and the unit's schedule of courses.

Recommendations which do not require funding

3. Maintain compensation for sabbaticals at their current level. Do not increase the compensation for a two-term sabbatical, a period which was the least popular option and will probably remain so.

4. Offer post-sabbatical support, such as an invitation to lead programmed lectures/ activities, an opportunity to teach new course(s), etc.

5. Organize an annual seminar developed by the Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development on "How to Prepare for a Sabbatical" that would provide information about grants and fellowship programs at other universities, housing and other family concerns, building a budget for sabbatical, etc. Faculty returning from sabbatical would be expected to participate in the seminar and share their experiences.

6. Implement a policy so that MTU-employed spouses accompanying faculty on a sabbatical leave would be granted a leave-of-absence from their present job with a guarantee they would return to their present or equivalent job and salary rate when their spouse's sabbatical is completed.

7. Appoint an individual responsible to assist in sabbatical leave detail work, such as in locating appropriate housing at the target site, and advertising for local "house-sitters" while the faculty person is gone. Other duties could include helping new faculty and graduate students replacing the individual on leave to find housing.

8. Generate a brochure to educate all faculty on the sabbatical leave policy and avenues for funding. The brochure should be developed by the Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development in coordination with Research Services and International Programs.

Adopted by Senate: October 2, 1996
Proposal under review by the Senate Academic Policy Committee due to semester conversion.
See Proposal 9-05