Faculty and Staff Resources

The following message is being sent on behalf of Provost Scott Furlong.

I am pleased to invite eligible members of the faculty to submit proposals for sabbatical leave for the 2025-2026 academic year. Faculty members interested in applying for a sabbatical leave should refer to the Policies of the Board of Trustees, Article XIII, Title E for details concerning eligibility, salary reimbursement, required return, etc.

Completed sabbatical applications should be submitted through the department chairs to the deans no later than December 23, 2024. 

Sabbatical proposal application

Sabbatical leaves are provided to maintain the high level of academic excellence necessary to meet the mission of the college and are an important avenue for individual professional development.

Faculty applying for a sabbatical should do so with the understanding that choosing appropriate recipients is a complex process due to limited funding and overlapping priorities. Besides the criteria explained below, there are other issues that impact final decisions, including the number of applicants, the amount of sabbatical funding available, the cost of each sabbatical in salary and benefits, and the projected impact on departmental and institutional initiatives.

Please be aware that given the ongoing budget uncertainties, the number of sabbaticals provided will be limited and perhaps not offered.

A sabbatical leave is a competitive process awarded to faculty based on the strength of his/her application. In all cases, department chairs and deans will prioritize requests to ensure maintenance of support for sufficient class offerings and other strategic programmatic and institutional initiatives. If there is more than one request from a department, the Chair must include his/her ranking of the proposals. In addition, the deans and I will prioritize sabbatical requests based on the following criteria:

• Evaluation of the Proposed Sabbatical
• Departmental Support: A letter of support from the appropriate Department Chair including a description of how the department will cover the courses, student advising, and/or other duties that are the responsibility of the faculty proposing the sabbatical.

Those considering a sabbatical are encouraged to work with the Office of Sponsored Programs (ORSP) to seek external funding in support of their sabbatical projects. The deans will review all sabbatical applications and prioritize them based on the above considerations and submit them to the Provost Office by January 6, 2025. Final decisions will be made by February 3, 2025.

• Sabbatical proposal application (PDF): includes cover sheet, application form, proposal directions and evaluation worksheet

• Sabbatical leave report cover sheet

As stated in the Policies of the Board of Trustees, upon the return from sabbatical, faculty must submit a report of their accomplishments to the chief administrative officer of the university.  

Begin the report with a summary of your sabbatical plan and approved amendments thereto. (If you have made changes in your sabbatical plan without proper authorization, explain the nature of the changes and why the office of the appropriate dean was not given prior notification.) In the body of the report, you must provide as comprehensive, detailed and precise an account as possible of your itinerary, professional activities and accomplishments while on sabbatical leave. Reports lacking in substance or detail will be returned for revision.

Address your report to the President and submit it to your department chairperson. The latter will review it and make a recommendation in writing to the appropriate division dean as to its acceptability. Finally, include a statement in the concluding section of your report to the effect that you did not receive a fellowship, grant-in-aid, or earned income beyond your sabbatical salary. Those of you who were recipients of a fellowship, grant-in-aid, or additional earned income should include a statement to the effect that these were reported earlier and approved by the administration. If you were the recipient of any of the above and you have yet to make a report to the administration, you must provide the details of such fellowships, grants-in-aid, or additional earned income at this time, and give an explanation as to why these were not reported earlier. As provided for in the Policies, “Eligible employees on sabbatical leave may, with the prior approval of the chief administrative officer, accept fellowships, grants-in-aid, or earned income to assist in accomplishing the purposes of their leaves. In such cases, the chief administrative officer may adjust the sabbatical leave salaries to reflect such income . . .”

Your report must be in the hands of your department chairperson no later than 30 days following the resumption of classes in the semester following your return from sabbatical leave. The chairperson has 14 days to review the sabbatical report and forward it with his or her recommendation to the appropriate division dean.

The policy on sabbatical reports as enunciated in this memorandum is designed to address specific criticisms which have been made recently by State auditors concerning the University’s administration of sabbatical and other leaves. This is a program which is of vital importance to members of the academic community; the best way to assure its continuation is to fulfill one’s commitments to the letter, including the obligation to submit a comprehensive report of one’s activities on time.