SABBATICAL LEAVE POLICY

I. Purpose

Sabbatical leave is granted for the express purpose of providing an opportunity for faculty members to enhance their professional development as educators through projects of research, writing, artistic production, and/or other professional activity. The leave will promote research (as defined below—in section IV, point 2) in one’s academic discipline.

II. Eligibility

Faculty members who have attained the rank of Associate Professor or above are eligible for their first sabbatical leave after 12 semesters of service to Stonehill College. Full-time faculty members holding long-standing term appointments may also be considered for sabbatical upon the approval of the Vice President for Academic Affairs. A faculty member will be eligible for future sabbaticals after every 12 semesters and should apply after ten semesters for the next year of eligibility. Since the college wishes to promote scholarship among its faculty, the college may include as part of the 12, semesters in which the College’s President and Vice-President for Academic Affairs have granted the faculty member leave for academic pursuits. The Dean of Faculty in consultation with the Vice-President for Academic Affairs will negotiate such arrangements on a case-by-case basis.

A sabbatical leave is granted consistent with the emphasis the college places on its teaching mission. In order to meet the teaching or administrative needs of the College, it may be necessary to delay or advance a specific faculty member’s sabbatical leave. Consultation between the Vice President for Academic affairs and the relevant department chair will determine this criterion. Such a determination will not negatively affect the candidate’s ongoing schedule of eligibility.

Faculty members who accept the benefit of a Sabbatical Leave are expected to return for full-time employment at Stonehill College for a minimum of one full academic year (9 months) following completion of the sabbatical. Agreements to the contrary must be negotiated and approved prior to participation. In those instances in which the faculty member neither returned to College duties for at least one year nor had a written agreement to the contrary, the faculty member may be required to return to the College the salary.

III. Process

Applications must be submitted to the Dean of Faculty the second Friday of October of the year prior to that in which the faculty member intends to take a Sabbatical Leave.

The application must include (a) the approval of the appropriate Department Chairperson, (b) an explanation by the Chairperson of the impact of the sabbatical on teaching needs in the department, and (c) a sabbatical proposal that follows the official format. Proposals that do not follow the format cannot be approved. Sabbatical applications are evaluated by the Standards and Evaluation Committee, which makes recommendations to the Vice President for Academic Affairs. The Vice President then forwards the applications, with his/her recommendations, to the President for final action.

1. Preliminary Information

Name
Primary email address
Office address
Telephone

Current Position at Stonehill College

Rank
Discipline
Specialization
Department

2. Sabbatical Project

Brief descriptive title of your proposal, clearly indicating whether it will involve research, writing, artistic production, and/or professional activity.

Specific time period of sabbatical (one semester or full academic year)

If travel is required, where and when you will conduct research or other professional activity.

If your proposed project involves human subjects, please indicate this, as well as whether or not you have received IRB approval. All grants projects involving research with human subjects must receive IRB approval before the grant period begins.

3. Proposal

Your description should make the project clear to an interdisciplinary academic panel of peers on the Standards and Evaluation Committee. It is recognized that project descriptions will vary according to the author’s discipline or professional background; however, the basic elements below must be incorporated into the text.

An analysis of the problem to be addressed, its background, and its significance to the field, which may include:

the basic ideas and hypotheses to be explored

reference to the originality of the proposed study through a brief statement that locates it within the current literature of the field

the methods or approaches to be used

The body of research materials that will be drawn upon in archives, libraries, and research centers, laboratories, or the equivalent, depending on the field of specialization

A specific work plan that indicates what will actually be done during the period of funding

An indication of how the project’s results will be disseminated to augment your abilities as a classroom educator and/or promote research

An explanation of how the project will directly strengthen your teaching, research, and/or artistic production

4. Up-to-date curriculum vitae

IV. Evaluation

In awarding a sabbatical leave, the following criteria must be met:

Clear evidence that the applicant’s project will promote research in one’s discipline, as defined in section VI, point 2.
Demonstration of scholarly publication or similar results from previous sabbatical leaves (as applicable) through submission of Sabbatical Completion Report(s). See section VII.
A record of publications of refereed books, articles or artistic creations as demonstrated on the CV, which reveals active and recent scholarship in the applicant’s field. However, this does not preclude the awarding of sabbaticals to faculty who, for whatever reasons, have not had a significant publication record, but can demonstrate a plan for beginning or reinvigorating their scholarly efforts and outcomes.

V. Guidelines and Restrictions

The following guidelines and restrictions are placed on Sabbatical Leaves:

Ordinarily, teaching or other employment of a non-research nature is not permitted during a sabbatical. Exceptions to this policy must be approved in advance by the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Sabbatical leave applications include such research, writing, artistic production, and/or other professional activities that:

Advance knowledge through original and/or creative research
Integrate or synthesize knowledge (e.g., create textbooks, edited anthologies or volumes; conduct interdisciplinary research; educate non-specialists within and outside the college; review the work of others; and develop technology to assist faculty in their work)
Apply knowledge (e.g., public programming, collaboration with other institutions and groups, design and lead workshops and seminars)
Transform knowledge through pedagogical and curricular development (e.g., develop museum catalogues and exhibits, film and radio presentations; research and write in order to improve teaching at the college or K-12 levels, develop assessment tools, educate faculty peers in web-based or other instructional technologies)

It is recognized that in some disciplines there are several steps and much time necessary for data collection, analysis and ultimately publication. Thus, while some sabbatical leave projects will not end with a final product, applicants must nonetheless provide a detailed Sabbatical Leave Completion Report, as outlined in section VII, point 1.

The Vice President for Academic Affairs will provide a written explanation for any sabbatical leave decision that deviates from the Standards and Evaluation Committee’s recommendation.

Faculty members have the right to appeal decisions pertinent to sabbatical leaves to the Faculty Grievance Committee.

The Office of Academic Affairs will publish a list of faculty members approved for a sabbatical leave as well as a description of their successful sabbatical leave proposals.

VI. Reporting Sabbatical Results

Within one semester of returning to full-time teaching, a faculty member granted sabbatical will:

Submit to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the respective department chair and the chair of the Standards and Evaluation Committee three copies of a 1-2 page "Sabbatical Leave Completion Report." This summarizes (1) completed work and, if applicable, (2) future plans to finalize the project through publication, artistic exhibition, or similar, depending on one’s discipline. Reports will be made available to any faculty member upon request.
Communicate the results of their sabbatical activities to the academic community by way of a seminar, printed summary, intranet discussion group, or any other forum open to the community. It is the responsibility of the chair of the Standards and Evaluation Committee, the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the respective department chair to assure that the results of the sabbatical leave are publicly circulated within the college community.

VII. Benefits

During a sabbatical leave, a faculty member shall continue to enjoy all normal employee benefits.

A sabbatical leave, if granted, provides full salary for one semester, or half salary for two semesters. Faculty members may make efforts to secure outside funding for their sabbaticals. If the faculty member is successful in obtaining a grant or fellowship, that funding may be used to extend a paid sabbatical for one year. Faculty members who are on full salary sabbatical leave may not engage in salaried employment in this country or elsewhere, however desirable the experience, during the time covered by the sabbatical. This does not preclude acceptance of scholarships, fellowships, or grants for the purpose of research and study for which no services are required, or Fulbright lectureships when teaching is combined with research. A faculty member on a half-salary sabbatical leave may, with the prior approval of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, accept outside remuneration for work directly relevant to his or her teaching, research, creative or professional activity, or service.