Contents
Catalog Links

Sabbaticals

A sabbatical leave is a privilege granted to eligible faculty members to undertake activities that will contribute to their teaching effectiveness, scholarship acumen, professional development, and/or service performance to the College or the Community. The range of activities an eligible faculty member may want to pursue is broad and diverse. A sabbatical leave is expected to contribute to a faculty member’s growth as a teacher, enrich their teaching and scholarship performance and enhance their value to the College. The release time could include, but is not limited to:

  • Scholarly research, creative projects, post-doctoral studies, curricular development and pedagogical innovation.
  • Development of areas of academic specialization.
  • Strengthening teaching effectiveness.
  • Increasing the quality of future service to the College and to higher education.

A. Eligibility

Any full time tenured faculty member with the rank of Associate Professor or higher who has completed six or more consecutive years at the College is eligible to apply for a sabbatical leave.  Upon return from a sabbatical leave, a faculty member only becomes eligible again once they have completed six additional years of service at the College.  A faculty member receiving a sabbatical must return to the College for the next academic year after completing the sabbatical. Failure to do this will require the faculty member to reimburse the College for the salary obtained while on sabbatical.

  1. If a faculty member decides to terminate their employment at the College within one year of returning from a sabbatical, the faculty will be required to reimburse the College the salary portion of their benefit on a pro rata basis. Termination due to disabilities will be considered as special circumstances and the reimbursement requirement may be waived by the Vice President for the Academic Affairs.
  2. A sabbatical cannot be used to study for a terminal degree.

B. Priority

The College will grant no more than three percent of the faculty members a full year leave and three percent of the faculty members a one-semester leave in any given academic year. Each full year sabbatical that is not awarded may be converted into two one-semester sabbaticals. In granting the leave, priority will be given to a faculty member whose application was approved, but not funded in a previous year.

C. Stipend

Sabbatical leave can be granted for one semester at full salary or one academic year at one-half of full salary. Normal raises in salary and benefit will not be affected by the leave. The College will continue to pay full share toward retirement pension, group life, health, dental and long-term disability insurance. A faculty member is allowed to receive a salary, grant or stipend from the source of their work while on leave.

D. Application Guidelines

  1. Required items:
    1. Completed application form.
    2. Detailed description of the specific project that the faculty member will undertake during the leave.
    3. Description of how the proposed project relates to the faculty member’s teaching, scholarship, service or artistic endeavors.
    4. Discussion of how the project will have a positive impact on the College.
    5. An updated Curriculum Vita.
  2. Steps and timeline:
    1. Complete packet must be submitted to the Dean, Division Chair, or Library Director by September 1 of the year prior to the requested sabbatical leave.
    2. Dean, Division Chair, or Library Director will provide a statement regarding the staffing impact and the plan for providing coverage for the proposed leave as well as their recommendation and submit the packet to the Vice President for Academic Affairs by October 1.
    3. Faculty Development Committee will provide its recommendation regarding whether the sabbatical should or should not be approved by November 1.  The approval decision is to be based upon whether or not the faculty member and the proposal meet the eligibility requirements and will not imply the relative measure of the proposed project.  Each recommendation will include a narrative explaining how the data points contributed to the determination.
    4. Vice President for Academic Affairs will consider all the sabbatical requests and staffing needs and provide their recommendation to the President by November 15.
    5. The VPAA will notify the applicant of their recommendation by December 1.
    6. The President will notify the applicant and the Dean/Chair/Director of the sabbatical decision as soon as possible after the Board of Trustees decision.
  3. Obligation:
    1. Provide at least one year of full time service to the College upon returning from the sabbatical leave.  As stated above (a. Eligibility), faculty members will be ineligible for a subsequent sabbatical until they have completed another six years of service to the College.
    2. Provide a detailed sabbatical report on the results of the project to the VPAA within one semester of resuming full time service.
    3. Sabbatical report will be made available online at the College portal.
    4. The faculty member will present their report in a public forum.