Leaves of Absence

There are several different types of leave:

1. Course Buyout Policy: Faculty can buyout up to ½ their teaching load at 20% of their nine-month salary, per course, in order to further their research or in support of some other activity aligned with departmental, college, or university goals.
   • It is expected the source of funds will normally come from external grants.
   • The Executive Officer of the faculty member’s department and the College must approve the course buyout.
2. Salary Buyout Policy: Funding Nine Month Salary from External grants (Pilot): Faculty can use their grant funds to pay part of their nine-month state-funded salary without a reduction in teaching load.
   • Faculty will receive 50% of the state funds in a separate account to be used for support of their research.
   • The college will retain the remaining 50% of state funds not spent on the faculty member’s salary.
   • This buyout must be allowable and approved in advance by the external funding agency.
   • The Executive Officer of the faculty member’s department and the College must approve the course buyout.
   • The college will maintain the same responsibility for the faculty member’s full nine-month salary in the future, as they would have if the buyout had not occurred.
3. Fellowship: In general, a fellowship requires faculty to take educational leave. The fellowship is generally paid directly to the faculty member. If the amount is lower than the faculty salary, the faculty may, with the endorsement of the department head, appeal to the College to make the salary whole. SURS and benefits continue but in cases where faculty members are not receiving a paycheck from UIC or if it is too small to cover the contributions, they will have to pay the contributions personally. There is a lifetime 24-month limit on educational leave for which the University will contribute toward benefits. After 24 months faculty members will be responsible for cost of all benefit costs, as for personal leave.
4. Personal leave (unpaid): Faculty members may request unpaid leave, for example to take a visiting appointment at another institution. Faculty members are responsible for all SURS and benefits contributions. It is against college policy to approve leave for faculty to take any appointment at an institution from which they have an active offer of permanent employment.

University statutes provide for the opportunity to apply for sabbatical leave for the purposes of conducting research or acquiring new knowledge and competency in their field.  Information about sabbatical eligibility and procedures can be found on the website of the Vice President for Academic Affairs.  You will also receive notification from the college when the electronic form is available and the deadlines have been set for a given academic year.  Sabbatical applications are usually due to the college by mid-September, although the precise schedule is determined by deadlines handed down by University Administration.

It is the Executive Officer’s responsibility to transmit the electronic sabbatical application forms to the college by the deadline with his or her recommendation (and reasons for same) as well as a statement as to what provision will be made for workload during the faculty member’s absence.  If there is more than one sabbatical application from a single unit the Executive Officer must assign a priority of low, medium, or high to each application.

Frequently there will be a rather quick turnaround between the time that the official application form for a given year is made available and the time the completed application is due in the college.  For this reason, Executive Officers should be proactive and encourage faculty who are planning on applying for sabbatical to begin preparing their materials ahead of time.  While the form can change a bit from year to year, it usually retains the same key elements.  A faculty member can, for instance, count on having to provide a statement of research plans.

Before submitting the application to the college please be sure that you have provided all of the information required from the Executive Officer.  Applications are sometimes questioned or returned by subsequent committees because the Executive Officer has not explained in sufficient detail why he or she supports a particular application or what provisions will be made for dealing with the faculty member’s absence.  Please also review the entire application to make sure that all of the necessary components are included and that the applicant has made a compelling case for leave.  The full statement of research plans is especially important, and applicants should know that they are encouraged to provide a thorough description of these plans.

Faculty members who have been on sabbatical are required to provide a report describing sabbatical activities, information on where they occurred, and their significance or usefulness.  Please see the VPFA website to determine the due date for these reports and make sure they are turned in on time.

Upon return from sabbatical leave, faculty members must remain in service to the University for at least one year following return from a leave. If the obligation to remain in service for a year following the sabbatical leave is unfulfilled, the faculty member, or his/her/ their new employer must reimburse the University for the salary paid while on sabbatical leave.

• Vice President for Academic Affairs
• Policies and Guidelines
• Purpose of Leave
• Statement of Plans
• Other

Family-Medical leaves details can be found below:

• Family-Medical Leaves
• UIC Faculty Handbook: Leaves