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Flexible Sabbatical Policy Explained

 

 

Flexible Sabbatical Policy Explained

Prior to the 09-12 contract, calculating sabbatical time was a simple affair. Tenured faculty with 6 years of service could take a full-year sabbatical at 50% pay or a one semester sabbatical at 100% pay. Once the sabbatical was over, faculty members would be eligible for a subsequent sabbatical after another 6 years. While this worked well for many of our members it presented a number of problems for others. Not all faculty members could adhere to a rigid 6 year wait between sabbaticals to conduct their research. For them unique and time sensitive opportunities to conduct research often presented themselves after 2, 3, 4, or 5 years rather than 6.

Enter the flexible sabbatical leave policy which the FSU negotiated for the 09-12 contract. The flexible sabbatical policy allows tenure system faculty to accumulate credit toward sabbatical for each semester of work.  Credits can be banked (if desired) so that the leave can be taken when opportunities arise, rather than only during every seventh year of employment. This policy allows for a full year/full pay sabbatical to be taken if enough credits are banked. It prevents the loss of sabbatical credits if you choose to delay taking your sabbatical beyond year seven. It also allows sabbaticals to be taken early.

 

This is how it works: after six years of full‐time equivalent service, tenured faculty members will be eligible for a one semester sabbatical leave at 100% of salary, a full academic year of sabbatical leave at 50% of salary, or two non‐consecutive semesters of sabbatical leave each at half salary (for part-time faculty members, full-time faculty members who were previously part-time, or calendar year faculty members these percentages will vary- contact the FSU office for details). In other words, a tenured faculty member’s first sabbatical must be taken in the ‘traditional’ way. But once the first sabbatical leave is taken, subsequent sabbatical leaves can be taken in three ways:

 

‐ Single semester at a pay rate determined by the accrued sabbatical credits, up to a maximum of 100% of your salary

 

‐ Full year at a pay rate determined by the accrued sabbatical credits, up to a maximum of 100% of your salary

 

‐ Two non‐consecutive semesters at a pay rate determined by the accrued sabbatical credits, up to a maximum of 100% of  your salary

 

(go to Appendix C of the FSU contract for a chart showing year‐by‐year eligibility for sabbatical leave). 

 

Tenured faculty members will be eligible for subsequent sabbatical leaves at a salary percentage based on their accrued semesters of full‐time equivalent qualified service.  Qualified service includes all semesters after the initial sabbatical leave that have not been used for any prior sabbatical leave up to 100% pay. Qualified service excludes any year during which a sabbatical leave is taken.  Faculty members may determine the number of sabbatical credits they devote to any sabbatical leave. (Faculty members should be aware that any sabbatical leave taken at less than 50% pay will suspend payment of benefits during that sabbatical leave.)

Here are a couple of examples of how a faculty member could use the flexible sabbatical:

1)    A faculty member is granted tenure after 6 years. They begin their first sabbatical at the start of their 7th year (remember, the first sabbatical is either 1 semester at full pay or 2 semesters at half-pay each).  Now, instead of waiting another 6 years for their 2nd sabbatical the faculty member decides to take a 2nd sabbatical two years after the end of their 1st sabbatical.  Looking at the chart, you see that 2 years (or 4 semesters of credit) would allow the faculty member to be paid 33% of their salary for a one semester sabbatical or 16.7% of their salary for a 2 semester sabbatical.

2)    A faculty member is granted tenure after 6 years. They begin their first sabbatical at the start of their 7th year.  Instead of waiting 6 years for their 2nd sabbatical the faculty member decides to take a 2nd sabbatical 10 years after the end of their 1st sabbatical.  Looking at the chart, you see that 10 years (or 20 semesters of credit) would allow the faculty member to take a 1 semester sabbatical at 100% of their salary and a 2 semester sabbatical at 83.3% of their salary.

An important note needs to be added to example #2. If the faculty member takes a single semester sabbatical they would accumulate enough credits to be paid more than 100% of their salary. However, 100% of salary is the maximum allowed under the sabbatical leave policy. Furthermore, those credits do not carry over once the sabbatical is completed (this applies to both single and two semester sabbaticals). In other words, a faculty member who takes a sabbatical 10 years after their prior sabbatical as in example #2 and the faculty member who takes a sabbatical 7 years after their prior sabbatical will both finish their sabbaticals with zero sabbatical credits. As we enter into negotiations for the next contract the FSU will be looking to have the flexible sabbatical language changed so that any remaining sabbatical credits would be carried over when a sabbatical is completed rather than discarded.