Sabbatical Leave

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POLICY
Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) will provide an opportunity for eligible faculty members and some administrators returning to faculty to take sabbatical leave. Sabbatical leave allows faculty members to periodically renew and update professional qualifications, improve skills, engage in creative or scholarly pursuits, improve teaching and learning, or engage in service opportunities.
REFERENCES
1. Employee Benefits, Utah System of Higher Educ., r. 821.
DEFINITIONS
1. Annual Base Salary: remuneration faculty receive for Fall and Spring Semesters, or 30 instructional units, not including the monetary value of benefits.
2. College Sabbatical Committee: an annually constituted ad hoc committee comprised of the associate provost for Learning Advancement, the chair of the Faculty Senate’s Professional Growth and Faculty Development Subcommittee, and one tenured faculty from each academic school. The Faculty Senate president shall appoint faculty members of the college Sabbatical Committee.
3. E&G Faculty Members: full-time faculty whose salary is paid with instructional Education and General funds.
4. Faculty Members: those appointed to full-time teaching for a nine or more-month annual appointment, or others designated as faculty members appointed to fill temporary special assignments. Faculty members in such special assignments come from teaching and return to teaching. Some faculty members are tenured, some are in departmental tenure-track positions, and others are in non-tenure-track positions.
5. Sabbatical Leave: a paid leave of absence for one or two semesters to full-time faculty members to permit them to renew and update their qualifications, improve their skills, engage in creative or scholarly pursuits, improve teaching and learning, or engage in service opportunities in ways that ultimately enhance learning at the college. Some administrators returning to faculty may be granted a one-semester sabbatical leave to prepare their courses for the subsequent semester.
6. Satisfactory Service: demonstrated acceptable performance as documented through the college’s current performance evaluation system.
7. Tenure: the status achieved following the appropriate review period and following a prescribed evaluation that shows that the faculty member fully meets professional standards and is competent in the discipline, competent as a teacher, and competent as a colleague.
PROCEDURES
1. Eligibility for Sabbatical Leave
  1. To be eligible for sabbatical leave, a faculty member must meet the following criteria:
    1. The faculty member must hold a full-time faculty contract of nine or more months per year, including teaching, professional, or administrative contract duties.
    2. At the commencement of the sabbatical leave, the faculty member must have completed six continuous years of satisfactory service as a full-time faculty member at SLCC or six years of satisfactory service as a full-time faculty member since any previously awarded sabbatical leave.
    3. If a sabbatical cannot be granted with six years of satisfactory service due to institutional needs, any additional years of service before the faculty member is granted a sabbatical will count toward eligibility for a subsequent sabbatical.
  2. The time spent on sabbatical leave is excluded from the six-year requirement.
  3. The total number of two-semester sabbatical leaves granted in any academic year shall not exceed 2.0 percent of the total number of E&G faculty members at SLCC and 2.0 percent of Salt Lake Technical College faculty. The number of one-semester sabbatical leaves granted in E&G faculty lines will be a function of the number of two-semester leaves. No more than two-thirds of the total number of sabbaticals may occur at the same time in the Fall or Spring semester. For example, if 6 E&G, two-semester sabbaticals are allowed in a year, that means that 12 E&G, one-semester sabbaticals are allowed in a year—if no one wants to take a two-semester sabbatical. In any given semester, no more than 8 E&G faculty may be on sabbatical (one or two-semesters) at a time.
  4. No more than two faculty from any single department or division shall be on sabbatical in any one semester.
  5. Regardless of the number of faculty members, at least one faculty member in each department or division shall be eligible for sabbatical leave each year as long as those faculty members are eligible under this policy.
  6. All rounding shall be to the next whole number when calculating percentages.
  7. Members of the college Sabbatical Committee may not apply for sabbatical while serving on the Committee.
  8. Sabbatical leave is not a right. It is within the college’s sole discretion to grant sabbatical leave.
2. Application
  1. Applications for sabbatical leave must be made in writing to the college Sabbatical Committee via the office of the associate provost for Learning Advancement and contain the following:
    1. A detailed description of the proposed sabbatical activity to include:
      1. how the activity supports SLCC’s mission, vision, and goals; and
      2. how the project will benefit the college, the faculty member’s academic department, other departments, or students.
    2. A clear and realistic timeline demonstrating that the project can be accomplished in the allotted time and requires the allotted time.
    3. Endorsement letters from faculty colleagues. (Optional)
  2. The provost and the president will consider the associate dean's and dean's recommendations.
  3. The college solicits applications that correspond with one or more of the following purposes:
    1. Credentialing
      1. A sabbatical designed to enhance the faculty member’s academic or professionally-recognized credentials.
      2. Such credential enhancements benefit students, the faculty member’s department, or other departments at SLCC.
      3. Applications in this category should:
        
        describe the credentials to be received or progressed toward;
        
        the institutions involved;
        
        the subject areas to be studied;
        
        a description of how the sabbatical is in line with actual credential improvement; and
        
        what will be accomplished during the sabbatical
      4. Examples of sabbatical leave for credentialing purposes include, but are not limited to, starting a PhD program, writing a dissertation, or a Nurse Practitioner earning an APRN or working toward board certification.
      5. Faculty should be aware that the Full Time Faculty Handbook for Compensation and Workload stipulates that enhanced credentialing must be directly pertinent to one’s departmental teaching assignment to be used for pay advancement.
    2. Knowledge/Skill Development
      1. This type of sabbatical improves the faculty member’s knowledge base and skill set, though it does not enhance credentials.
      2. Enhanced development of a faculty member’s skills benefits students, the faculty member’s department, or other departments at SLCC.
      3. Applications in this category should:
        
        describe the knowledge or skills, or both, to be developed;
        
        the plan to ensure knowledge or skills, or both, are developed; and
        
        the mechanisms involved.
      4. This type of sabbatical should inform and enhance teaching.
    3. Pedagogically Centered Projects
      1. During a faculty member’s pedagogically-centered sabbatical leave, the member will complete at least one pedagogically centered project.
      2. Such projects should be directly related to improving teaching and learning at SLCC and clearly and directly benefit students.
      3. Examples of sabbatical leave for pedagogically-centered projects include:
        
        the improvement of a specific course or courses;
        
        the creation of open educational resources;
        
        the development of a high-impact practice; or
        
        the completion of a scholarship of teaching and learning project.
    4. Creative or Scholarly Production
      1. A sabbatical leave during which the faculty member produces a significant and substantial corpus that showcases the faculty’s creativity or engagement with a scholarly field.
      2. Projects in this category should enhance the reputation of the individual faculty member. As a result, the faculty member’s department and the college are enhanced. This type of sabbatical should inform and enhance teaching.
    5. Scholarship of Engagement and Application
      1. A faculty member engages with the community during this sabbatical. The faculty member addresses social problems and advances economic, social, and cultural opportunities using their talents and discipline knowledge.
      2. Such projects should enhance the reputation of the faculty, the department, or the college. This type of sabbatical should inform and enhance teaching.
    6. Hybrid
      Projects that combine elements of more than one type of sabbatical leave.
3. Application Timeline
  1. On the last day of the Spring Semester, the associate provost for Learning Advancement issues a call for sabbatical applications for the following year.
  2. On or before the second Friday of September, the faculty member must submit the sabbatical proposal to the dean and associate dean.
  3. On or before the third Friday of September, the faculty member shall submit a completed application to the associate provost for Learning Advancement. If the dean or associate dean wishes to send a letter to the provost, it must be submitted to the associate provost for Learning Advancement by this date.
  4. The college Sabbatical Committee has until the third Friday of October to make recommendations to the provost regarding the sabbatical applications.
  5. On or before the second Friday of November, the provost will review the applications and submit recommendations to the college president.
  6. The president will review the applications and submit a decision to the provost by the second Friday of December. The provost will communicate the decision to the associate provost for Learning Advancement.
  7. By the third Friday of December, the associate provost for Learning Advancement will send written notices of the final decisions to the applicants.
4. Criteria for Review of Applications
  1. The college Sabbatical Committee shall consider the following in reviewing sabbatical proposals:
    1. The overall quality and clarity of the proposal, including supporting documentation.
    2. The degree to which the proposed sabbatical supports department goals, the individual’s goals, and professional development.
    3. The degree to which the proposed sabbatical supports the college’s mission and values.
    4. The degree to which the proposed sabbatical promises to improve teaching and learning at the college.
    5. The prospect that the sabbatical will successfully achieve its goals.
  2. The president and provost shall consider the factors listed in 4.D.1, and also the following:
    1. dates of employment;
    2. previous sabbatical leaves granted (considered when more applications have been received than the college can support); and
    3. letters of endorsement or opposition from the relevant dean or associate dean.
5. Compensation
  1. Compensation while on sabbatical leave shall be 100 percent of a faculty member’s base salary for a one-semester sabbatical and 80 percent of their base salary for a two-semester sabbatical.
  2. Remuneration shall be made in semi-monthly payments with appropriate deductions for all benefits to which the faculty member would ordinarily be entitled.
  3. Sick leave shall accrue following the Vacation and Sick Leave Policy.
  4. Faculty members on sabbatical leave may accept outside compensation if they comply with the Conflict of Interest, External Employment, and Consultation Policy. External employment or compensation while on sabbatical must not interfere with completing the sabbatical project.
  5. Faculty members on sabbatical leave may not receive additional compensation from the college or take on additional teaching load from the college. Faculty may be compensated for teaching in the summer they begin sabbatical and the summer they end the sabbatical.
6. Sabbatical Agreement
  1. Acceptance of sabbatical leave by the faculty member means the faculty member will complete the sabbatical goals as approved.
  2. If the purpose of the sabbatical leave changes while on sabbatical, the faculty member will request approval of modifications from the dean and associate dean. If approved, the faculty member will communicate modifications to the sabbatical leave to the associate provost for Learning Advancement.
  3. Upon completion of a sabbatical, a faculty member must submit a substantive report to the associate provost for Learning Advancement. The report should include:
    1. the faculty member’s relevant activities while on sabbatical leave; and
    2. supplementary materials, such as transcripts, creative or scholarly pieces produced, or open educational resources. The associate provost for Learning Advancement will distribute the report to the president, provost, relevant dean, and relevant associate dean.
    3. The associate provost for Learning Advancement will maintain a public web page documenting reports and supplementary materials
  4. By the end of the academic year in which the faculty member returns from the sabbatical, the faculty member must complete a formal presentation in an appropriate college-wide venue sponsored by the Faculty Teaching and Learning Center. The presentation may be a workshop or seminar and should detail the educational and professional impact of sabbatical leave.
  5. The faculty member must return to the college upon the expiration of the leave and complete one or two semesters of full-time, following the terms of the sabbatical leave. Should the faculty member not return to the college at the conclusion of the sabbatical leave, the compensation received from the college while on sabbatical leave shall be repaid immediately.
  6. The provost will submit a sabbatical leave summary report to the board of trustees.
  7. The president, with input from the associate dean, dean, associate provost for Learning Advancement, and provost, may determine that a faculty member has not fulfilled the sabbatical goals.
  8. Failure to complete the sabbatical goals as approved or to fulfill the post-sabbatical duties will result in a referral to the provost for corrective action. Corrective action may include repayment to the college of the compensation provided during the sabbatical.
7. Delaying Sabbatical Leave
  1. A sabbatical proposal may be delayed upon recommendation by the provost for up to one year, provided such delay does not result in the loss of the sabbatical opportunity.
  2. Written documentation explaining the reasons for the delay must be provided to the faculty member. Documentation of a request for a delay and the results will become part of the faculty member’s sabbatical leave application. A sabbatical application that is recommended for delay will be considered to have completed the review process.
  3. The final decision regarding the delay of any approved sabbatical is at the president's sole discretion.
8. Faculty Member Requests Postponement of Sabbatical
  1. A faculty member may request to postpone a sabbatical leave for one year due to extraordinary circumstances beyond the faculty member’s control.
  2. A request for postponement must be made in writing to the provost, dean, and associate dean. Copies will also be sent to the Budget Office, the associate vice president of People and Workplace Culture, and the associate provost for Learning Advancement.
  3. The request for postponement must include the dates of the revised sabbatical plan.
  4. Approval of such postponement must not be withheld unreasonably.
  5. The year of postponement will not count as a year of service toward a future sabbatical leave.
9. Faculty Member Requests Cancellation of Sabbatical
  1. A faculty member may cancel an approved sabbatical leave within ten business days after receipt of the sabbatical contract.
  2. Applications for cancellation must be made in writing to the provost, dean, and associate dean. Copies will also be sent to the Budget Office, the associate vice president of People and Workplace Culture, and the associate provost for Learning Advancement.
  3. A faculty member who elects to cancel an approved sabbatical request may submit a new sabbatical application by following the procedure outlined in this policy.
  4. Cancellation of a sabbatical leave must not prejudice future sabbatical leave applications.
10. Communication While On Sabbatical
  While on sabbatical leave, a faculty member will communicate with the member’s respective department. Individual departments will determine to what extent and in what form that communication will occur.
11. Family Medical Leave Act
  1. If, while on sabbatical, a faculty member applies for and is granted leave under the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the faculty member is entitled to interrupt the sabbatical leave for the eligible FMLA term in accordance with the Family and Medical & Parental Leave Policy.
  2. Sabbatical leave may then resume as though there was no interruption. Application, use of sick time, and continuation of benefits are outlined in the college’s Family and Medical & Parental Leave and Vacation and Sick Leave policies.
12. Administrators Returning to Faculty Sabbatical Leave
  1. Eligibility. To be eligible for a sabbatical to return to faculty from an administrative position, the administrator must meet the following criteria:
    1. have earned tenure at Salt Lake Community College; and
    2. have served for at least six years in administration.
    3. In some cases, the provost may waive eligibility requirements if it is in the interest of the department.
  2. The Award. Eligible administrators may, at the provost’s discretion, receive the following:
    1. Up to one semester at 100 percent of the pro-rated pay for the faculty position into which the administrator is moving.
    2. Eligible semesters for this award are Fall and Spring. Any sabbatical outside those semesters may be approved with sufficient justification.
    3. No person may simultaneously hold an administrative position and a return to faculty sabbatical.
    4. Sabbatical awards under this provision are restricted to preparing the administrator to return to teaching. Other projects are not allowed.
  3. Procedure
    1. The administrator must apply in writing to the provost and the appropriate dean for this sabbatical at least two months prior to the start of the semester in which they intend to take sabbatical. The application letter must specify what the administrator plans to do on sabbatical to prepare to go back to teaching and must be accompanied by the applicant’s updated curriculum vita.
    2. The provost, after consultation with the dean and any other administrators, will approve or deny the request within one month of receiving the application.

Date of Last Cabinet Review: May 27, 2025

The originator of this policy & procedure is the associate provost for Learning Advancement. Questions regarding this policy may be directed to the originator by calling 801-957-4280

SLCC Policies and Procedures

Sabbatical Leave