Sabbaticals
Sabbaticals
Principles and Purposes
These revised and clarified guidelines reaffirm the College's commitment to supporting all eligible faculty in planning for a well-used sabbatical leave, and then experiencing a productive and enriching period of intellectual, creative, and personal renewal.
This continuing commitment was clearly explained in the 1999 Columbia College Faculty Handbook:
The intention of a grant of a sabbatical leave is to allow the faculty member an opportunity to pursue a scholarly, artistic, educational, or professional project which cannot be undertaken in the normal course of a teaching assignment and faculty responsibility, and which measurably contributes to the individual's qualifications, quality of teaching and student benefit [sic], and is valuable to the College and its mission. The College has a profound interest in encouraging professional development and will make every effort to accommodate sabbatical requests. However, faculty must remember that a sabbatical is a privilege, not a right, and is awarded in a competitive environment.
Columbia's sabbatical policies and procedures are also consistent with national best practices, as described by Kenneth J. Zahorski in The Sabbatical Mentor: A Practical Guide to Successful Sabbaticals (1994):
"the overarching function of the sabbatical leave is to stimulate a faculty member's professional, personal, and intellectual growth. Further, most institutions insist on a mutuality of purpose, stating that the sabbatical leave project must show promise of benefiting both applicant and institution."
Please Note: Any exceptions with regard to sabbaticals must be approved by the Vice President for Academic Affairs in consultation with the Provost.
- For questions about sabbatical eligibility and/or staffing implications, please contact your department chair.
- For questions about date of hire or date(s) of previous sabbatical(s), please contact your Dean's office or Jessica Hannah in Instructional Records (jhannah@colum.edu).
- For questions about the Sabbatical Committee and its process, please contact Soo La Kim (skim@colum.edu).
Policies and Procedures
You may continue to scroll through the complete guidelines or you may click on any one of these seven headings to jump to the appropriate section:
I. Eligibility
II. Deferring a Sabbatical
III. Application Deadlines
IV. Preparing and Submitting an Application
V. Conditions Governing Use of Sabbatical Leaves
VI. Review Process
VII. Post-Sabbatical Reports
VIII. Policy on Chairs' Sabbaticals
I. Eligibility
General Statement: To be eligible for a sabbatical leave, a faculty member must have completed six (6) consecutive years of full-time teaching at Columbia College Chicago AND must have tenure. For example, if your last sabbatical leave was in Spring 2007 or earlier, you would probably be eligible to apply for a sabbatical leave in 2012-2013. If your tenure-track appointment began in Fall 2006 or earlier, you would probably be eligible to apply in 2012-2013 (subject to the stipulation in B below). It is the faculty member's responsibility to keep track of his/her sabbatical schedule and to determine his/her eligibility. Please contact Instructional Records or your Dean's office for relevant information.
Details:
A. Only tenured members of the faculty are eligible for sabbaticals.
B. In cases where length of service makes an individual eligible to apply for a sabbatical leave before receiving formal notification of tenure, the sabbatical remains contingent on the formal receipt of tenure before the sabbatical period begins.
C. Beginning with the application cycle for 2005-2006 sabbatical leaves, there must be an interval of six full academic years between the academic years in which sabbatical leaves are taken, regardless of whether the sabbatical takes place during the Fall Semester, the Spring Semester, or both. An eligible candidate applies in the Fall semester of one academic year (October/November), for a sabbatical leave for one or both semesters of the following academic year. During a transitional period, while this model is being implemented and sabbatical schedules regularized, the eligibility of some individuals who may have anticipated a sabbatical after 12 consecutive semesters of service will not be negatively affected.
D. Sabbatical credit does not accrue while a faculty member is on leave from the College. This means that in cases of interrupted service (for any reason) the time off does not typically count toward the six consecutive years of service required for a sabbatical leave, but the eligibility clock is not re-set. In extraordinary circumstances, such as an unpaid leave sought in order to accept a fellowship or other appointment that clearly supports the faculty member's artistic/scholarly development and/or will bring distinction to the College), a case can be made in writing to the Vice President for Academic Affairs in advance of the anticipated leave that sabbatical credit continue to accrue during the leave. The Vice President's decision will then be communicated in writing to the faculty member, the relevant Chair(s) and Dean(s), and the Sabbatical Committee in a timely manner before the anticipated unpaid leave.
E. Sabbatical leaves are granted for one semester at full salary; or, as an alternative, the faculty member seeking sabbatical may request a leave of one full academic year at one-half their base salary. Faculty accepting a sabbatical leave are obligated to return to Columbia College Chicago at the end of the sabbatical for a period of not less than one year. Failure to do so will require the faculty member to reimburse Columbia College for the amount paid during the sabbatical leave.
F. The Sabbatical Committee does not review requests for paid or unpaid leaves of absence.
G. No combination of sabbatical leaves and leaves with or without pay can exceed two years of continuous absence.
H. Eligibility is determined by the Committee on the basis of records maintained by the Office of Academic Affairs.
II. Deferring a Sabbatical
For personal or departmental reasons, a sabbatical leave may be deferred up to two years without the loss of any credit toward the next sabbatical. However, sabbatical leaves may not be deferred for more than two years.
Please Note: The College and the Sabbatical Committee recognize the need to balance flexibility with consistency and predictability when scheduling sabbaticals. Nonetheless, eligible faculty members are strongly encouraged to apply for their sabbaticals every seventh year, as an important component of a comprehensive and coherent plan for professional and creative growth that also includes tenure and post-tenure review. Deans and Chairs are strongly encouraged to resist as much as possible allowing staffing implications to influence the sabbatical schedules of their faculty. The Vice President for Academic Affairs and the College are strongly encouraged to allocate resources accordingly.
III. Application Deadlines
To help individuals develop thoughtful, detailed, and convincing proposals for their sabbatical leaves, the Committee has established staggered deadlines; these deadlines ensure opportunities for consultation with Department Chairs and School Deans before securing their endorsements and submitting the final proposal for review by the Committee.
Deadlines for Individuals Seeking a Sabbatical Leave for Fall 2012 and/or Spring 2013:
Please Note: ALL applications for Sabbatical Leaves, whether for Fall, Spring or the full academic year, will be due as follows:
Friday, September 23, 2011: Written statement of intention to apply due to Department Chair and the Office of Academic Affairs, Maggie Ritter, mritter@colum.edu or 312-369-7424, Office of Academic Affairs, 8th floor, 600 S Michigan (may be a single sentence). Please indicate whether application for sabbatical is for Fall, Spring, or full year.
Friday, October 14, 2011: Completed application materials due to Department Chair for review.
Friday, October 21, 2011: Department Chair forwards all applications to Dean for review. Any applications that have not been endorsed by the Chair must still be forwarded to the Dean.
Friday, November 4, 2011: Dean forwards endorsed applications to the Office of Academic Affairs to be distributed to the all-college Sabbatical Committee for review.
Between November 2011 and February 2012, the Sabbatical Committee will interview all candidates endorsed by their Chair and Dean.
IV. Preparing and Submitting an Application
Please Note: An application not prepared according to these guidelines or not received by the above deadlines may not be considered by the Committee and the candidate may lose eligibility for a sabbatical at that time.
The Committee's requirements for applications continue to be guided by this statement in the 1999 Faculty Handbook: "Individuals seeking grant of a sabbatical leave must submit a convincing plan for use of the sabbatical period."
A. A complete sabbatical application has three parts:
- the "convincing plan" or proposal (see detailed guidelines below);
- a current resume or curriculum vitae;
- a coversheet, including endorsements/signatures from Department Chair and School Dean.
Sabbatical Application Cover Sheet
Please note: PDF format requires Adobe Acrobat.
Application materials are available here online in both HTML and PDF formats. Currently the Office of Academic Affairs requires that applications be submitted in hard copy in order to ensure clear formatting and necessary signatures.
A clean copy of the final application must be submitted to the Department Chair by the October deadline.
B. The "convincing plan" or proposal should respond directly to the following five questions (ordinarily, in not less than 750 and not more than 1,500 words). Please include the five questions as subheadings in your proposal and answer each one in order.
1. What is the specific purpose of this sabbatical? Describe the project in reasonable detail for an audience of peers who are not necessarily experts in your field.
2. Why is this project important?
Explain the project's significance to your own professional development, as well as the contribution it will make to your field and to the College.
3. What do you expect to accomplish during the sabbatical period?
Questions to consider: (Depending on the nature of your proposal, you need not answer all of these suggested questions with equal explicitness.)
Will you begin a new project or continue a project already begun?
Outline a specific plan of work for the sabbatical period, a realistic timetable.
If the latter, how much have you already accomplished thus far?
Do you anticipate completion of the project during the sabbatical period?
If not, how much do you expect to accomplish during the sabbatical, and when do you anticipate completing the project?
Where will you be working and how much work-related travel do you anticipate?
4. How do you think your time spent on sabbatical will influence your professional work, including your teaching, when you return?
5. How do you anticipate sharing the results of your sabbatical with colleagues at Columbia and beyond after your sabbatical?
Here is a link to three sample applications, one from each School.
Please note:
Proposals which clearly respond to the above five questions have consistently been reviewed favorably by the Committee.
The sabbatical project may represent either new or continuing work. It may be a project that can be brought to completion within the sabbatical period, or it may be a more open-ended project still in its formative stages.
The important point is that the project be fully described in terms of the applicant's field and development as an artist/scholar and teacher.
Applicants should bear in mind that the proposal will be reviewed by members of the Sabbatical Committee who may or may not have a specialized knowledge of the proposal's area of inquiry.
V. Conditions Governing Use of Sabbatical Leaves
A. Requests for sabbatical leaves to pursue work toward an advanced degree should be explained in terms of an individual faculty member's creative, intellectual, and/or professional development, not just in terms of perceived need for additional credentials. The operative question in any case is: "How will this project contribute to the faculty member's development as an artist/teacher/scholar?"
B. Projects to develop major areas in course content and pedagogy may be considered, but should not simply replicate what is required under contract in this regard or what a faculty member might undertake with the assistance of a Faculty Development Grant. Pedagogically focused projects should require extensive and prolonged attention. The operative question in any case is, "How will this project contribute to the faculty member's development as an artist/teacher/scholar?"
C. Full-time teaching at another institution or full-time employment of a non-research nature is not normally permitted during a sabbatical. Exceptions to this policy must be approved, in writing, by the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
D. A sabbatical leave is intended to relieve a faculty member or department/program Chair from all routine service to the College, including, but not limited to, all committee work. Any exception to this policy must be agreed to in writing by both the Vice President for Academic Affairs (or appropriate Dean) and by the individual granted a sabbatical.
VI. Review Process
A. A faculty member's application for sabbatical leave will be subject to review and recommendation by a committee of peers (the all-college Sabbatical Committee).
B. Although there is no formal process for the review of preliminary drafts, candidates are encouraged to seek feedback on their applications from their colleagues and Chair before submitting the final version of the application to the Chair by the October deadline. Once the Chair has reviewed the application, he or she will forward it to the Dean for review whether or not it has the Chair's endorsement. After the Dean has also reviewed and endorsed the proposal, she will forward it to the Office of Academic Affairs by the November deadline to be copied and distributed to the all-college Sabbatical Committee.
Review Form for use by Chairs and Deans
Please note: PDF format requires Adobe Acrobat.
C. If for any reason, including concerns about staffing implications, a Chair or Dean declines to endorse a proposal, an explanation should be provided in writing both to the candidate and to the Dean or Chair. Applications that do not receive the Dean's endorsement will not be forwarded to the Sabbatical Committee.
D. After its deliberations, including review of the written application, written statements from the Chair and Dean, and an interview with the candidate, the all-college Sabbatical Committee will then forward its recommendation in writing, along with all related documents, to the Vice President for Academic Affairs for action. At that time, the candidate will receive a copy of the Committee's recommendation.
E. Any significant change in plans for the sabbatical period must be re-submitted to this review process.
VII. Post-Sabbatical Reports
A. Within six weeks of returning from a sabbatical leave, individuals must submit two copies of a written report on their sabbatical experience: one to their Department Chair and one to their School Dean.
B. Post-sabbatical reports must respond in narrative form to the following questions (which parallel those requiring a response when preparing and submitting a proposal):
1. What was the specific purpose of your sabbatical leave?
2. Why was your sabbatical project important?
3. What did you accomplish during your sabbatical leave? How do those accomplishments compare with your original plans and expectations?
4. In what ways does your sabbatical leave already seem to be influencing your professional work, including your teaching, now that you have returned to Columbia? What continuing benefits or consequences seem likely?
5. How would you like to share the fruits of your sabbatical with your colleagues at Columbia and beyond?
6. How might you approach your next sabbatical leave differently in light of your recent sabbatical experiences?
C. Primary responsibility for ensuring compliance of the post-sabbatical report policy rests with the individual's School Dean.
D. The Office of Academic Affairs, in cooperation with the Deans, Chairs, and the Sabbatical Committee, will establish and maintain an archive of post-sabbatical reports, documenting the creative and scholarly development of the College's faculty.
E. Individuals who cannot document that their sabbatical was conducted in accordance with College policies and their own sabbatical proposals may lose eligibility for one or more subsequent sabbaticals.
F. An individual who does not submit the required post-sabbatical report, prepared according to the guidelines, in a timely way, may not be eligible for subsequent sabbatical leaves.
VIII. Policy on Chairs' Sabbaticals
Effective Fall 2011, compensation for department Chairs who go on sabbatical will be base pay only. The chair’s stipend will not be included in compensation during a sabbatical.
Effective Fall 2011, department chairs who step down after serving three or more three-year terms as chair and who have not had a recent sabbatical may apply for a full year of leave at full pay. Application will be made to the School Dean who will forward it with his/her recommendation to the Vice President for Academic Affairs. The Vice President for Academic Affairs will make a decision on the application and inform the School Dean and the out-going department Chair. If the application is approved, the sabbatical “clock” will re-start upon the out-going Chair’s return to full-time teaching.
Department Chairs who step down after having served one or two three-year terms will be eligible to apply for sabbaticals in accordance with their regular sabbatical schedule for the accustomed term of one semester at full pay or two semesters at half pay.
(Approved by the Provost September, 2010)
