February 2, 2017
Questioner: Anonymous
Posed to: Earle Traynham, Provost & Vice President Academic Affairs
The Sabbatical Leave Policy in the CBA indicates that year-long (half-pay) sabbaticals “…shall be granted unless the University Administration has determined that the conditions set forth in this Section have not been met or that departmental/unit staffing considerations preclude such sabbatical from being granted.” This language seems to indicate that the criteria for faculty accessing a year-long (half-pay) sabbatical is determined by approval of the Department Chair and Dean.
Alternatively, one-semester (full-pay) sabbaticals often require a committee review, given that more applications are submitted than are offered. Could the Provost’s Office provide a report of how many applications have been received and now many applications have been awarded over the past 10 years for the one-semester (full-pay) sabbaticals, including the total number of eligible faculty each year?
Given that sabbatical leave applications for a one-semester (full-pay) option often require additional review steps (by way of a review committee) and that the applications for a one-year (half-pay) option require only the approval of the Chair and Dean, what is the rationale for having these applications due on the same day? Could the due dates be separated so as to provide faculty the option of submitting for both with full attention given to each?
Response:
The following grid provides the number of sabbatical applications and awards distributed from 2007-08 to 2017-18.
The number of awards allocated is dictated by the Collective Bargaining Agreement 24.1(b)(2): 1 sabbatical per 40 eligible faculty members. Each fall the Office of Institutional Research runs a query to determine the number of eligible faculty.
The timing of the sabbatical application is also dictated by the Collective Bargaining Agreement 24.1 (e)(1): Applications for sabbaticals to be taken during the following academic year shall be submitted by 5:00 p.m. October 15 of each year to the Office of Academic Affairs. Each application shall follow the format in Appendix I, and shall include the applicant’s name, the applicant’s college, the applicant’s department, the number of years in faculty status at the University, the dates, length and purpose of all previous sabbaticals taken, a curriculum vitae, a statement describing the program and activities to be followed while on sabbatical, relationship between proposed scholarship and instruction at UNF, the expected benefit of the sabbatical to the faculty member, to the University and the faculty member’s academic discipline, the anticipated short-term and long-term outcomes, including expected publications, from the leave, any anticipated supplementary income, and a statement that the applicant agrees to comply with the conditions of the sabbatical program as described in this article. The application (Appendix I) shall include recommendations from the applicant’s chair and dean.
If UFF agrees to a revised interpretation and allow for non-competitive sabbatical applications to be submitted at a different time from competitive sabbaticals, the Administration would accept that change.
