Senate
(Supersedes SD 88-27)
(Amended and Approved,
4/9/2007)
(See also Senate Document SD 06-19)
SABBATICAL LEAVES
IPFW’s mission includes the search for new knowledge, excellent teaching, and service to the university, profession, and community. In order to maintain and continue the high level of academic excellence necessary to support this mission, it is important for the faculty to periodically update and strengthen their professional skills. A sound program of sabbatical leaves is thus of vital importance to the University in that it provides for this continued professional growth and new or renewed intellectual achievement through significant study, research, and writing that cannot easily be done while engaged in the ongoing duties of a faculty member.
A sabbatical leave is not a leave which a faculty member automatically “earns” by having been employed for a given period of time. Rather, it is an investment by the University in the expectation that the sabbatical leave will significantly enhance the faculty member’s capacity to contribute to the objectives of the University. For this reason, all periods of sabbatical leave count as full-time service to the University and will be approved only if there is adequate reason to believe that they will achieve this purpose.
A statement of goals for the sabbatical, an outline of the type of evidence that will be used to demonstrate how those goals will be achieved, and a statement of the proposed use of the applicant’s time during the sabbatical period are required as part of the sabbatical application. Acceptable programs for the use of time may include:
1. Research on significant issues and problems, including pedagogical issues.
2. Important creative or descriptive work in any means of expression, for example, writing, painting, and so forth.
3. Retraining in new domains of scholarship or creative endeavor in one’s discipline. Such retraining may be used to enhance one’s scholarship and/or one’s teaching capabilities.
Before being evaluated by the Professional Development Subcommittee, applications for sabbatical leave must have been reviewed to ensure that the applications meet the guidelines specified in this document by appropriate administrators (chair/dean or director). Where possible, it is considered desirable that relevant departmental or division faculty committees (e.g., the Promotion and Tenure or Personnel Committee) make a written recommendation about sabbatical applications to the appropriate administrator at that level. The administrator will forward this recommendation along with his or her own recommendation to the next level.
The Professional Development Subcommittee is responsible for recommendations to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs regarding sabbatical leave applications. The Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs makes final decisions regarding sabbatical leave applications.
At the termination of the leave, and not later than three months after returning to campus, the faculty member must submit a report about the sabbatical leave to the department chair or program director to whom they report. The Chair forwards the report to the next level, usually the Dean or Director, who forwards the report to the Office of Academic Affairs. This report must outline how the sabbatical period was used, what outcomes were achieved, and indicate further outcomes that are expected as a result of the sabbatical project. All such reports must be included with subsequent sabbatical applications. Information about the outcome of previous sabbaticals will be used to evaluate subsequent sabbatical applications.
(Note: Per Senate Document SD 06-19, each
department or division should establish specific criteria for the granting of
sabbatical leaves that will serve as the basis of evaluation for applications
coming from that department or division, and that are consistent with the above
guidelines.)