Sabbatical Leave Requests

Guidelines for Sabbatical Leave Requests

Obligations of the Faculty Member

• Prepare a leave request, addressed to your department chairperson, that describes in two or three pages what you propose to accomplish during your sabbatical. The proposal you prepare should be as explicit as possible and should indicate what specific outcomes you expect to achieve. It should be written in such a way as to allow administrators outside your own department to understand the nature of your project. Keep in mind that a sabbatical leave is not an automatic entitlement, but rather a benefit that is granted upon approval of an appropriate leave plan.
• Indicate in your proposal the exact period for which you are requesting leave (fall semester, spring semester, or full academic year). Indicate also how your leave will both contribute to your own professional development and enhance your ability to contribute to the research, teaching, and service missions of the College of Arts and Sciences and the University of Louisville. Be sure to sign your proposal.
• If you anticipate receiving any funding or salary from some institution or agency outside the University of Louisville during the period of your sabbatical leave, indicate this anticipation in your proposal. However, you should not request a year-long leave based on outside funding if that funding has not yet been assured. Rather, you should request a leave for the semester during which you are certain you want to be relieved of your regular faculty responsibilities and then revise your leave request once you have secured the additional funding you are seeking.
• Append to your proposal your current c.v. as well as a summary of your accomplishments in the area of Research and Creative Activity since your appointment to the University of Louisville faculty or since your last sabbatical leave. This summary might include, for example, a list of works published, grant proposals funded, or exhibits mounted.

Obligations of the Chairperson

• Verify with the Dean's Office the eligibility for leave of the faculty member applying for a sabbatical.
• Prepare a memorandum, addressed to the Dean and signed, that includes the following:
  • Your approval of the period of leave requested by the faculty member. Please note that full-year leaves are strongly encouraged because they benefit faculty members the most.
  • Your assessment of the appropriateness of the plan for the sabbatical leave and your judgment about the feasibility of the plan's completion during the sabbatical period. This section of your memorandum should refer specifically to the value of the proposed sabbatical project both to the faculty member and to your department. You should also comment on the outcomes of any previous sabbaticals that the faculty member has had.
  • Your evaluation of the impact on your department of the sabbatical leave, if it is granted. Indicate how your department will cover the obligations normally fulfilled by the faculty member requesting leave. Indicate also whether your endorsement of the leave depends on the availability of supplemental funds (from money released by a year-long leave or from other sources). Please note that if your support is conditional on supplemental funding for the department, final approval of the leave may be delayed until the College's budget for the year of the sabbatical is known.

Conditions of Sabbatical Leave

• Faculty who have had a B-10 or B-12 salary arrangement during the academic year preceding the sabbatical year may request a leave for one-half of the academic year at full base pay or for one full academic year at one-half the base pay.
• Faculty members on sabbatical leave are strongly discouraged from participating in departmental or College activities during the leave period.
• After returning from sabbatical leave, faculty members must submit to the Dean a detailed report indicating the degree to which they achieved the specific outcomes outlined in the proposal.