ALC Research and Sabbatical Leave Policy and Procedure (PDF)

Research grants are crucially important to our academic mission, and ALC strongly supports all faculty members who intend to apply for research grants. However, it is important for ALC to anticipate needs that emerge from requests for research leave. The policy articulated below is designed to aid ALC in anticipating those needs. Leave requests for other reasons, such as health, are not subject to this policy.

Notification and Consultation Requirement

All ALC faculty members are strongly encouraged to apply for research grants, and any ALC member who anticipates seeking research leave is encouraged to consult with the Chair well in advance of submitting their application. At a minimum, faculty members should inform the Chair by August 25 of the previous academic year of their anticipated research leave. For example, if one anticipates applying for a grant in the spring of 2028 in order to be on research leave in the fall of 2028, the Chair should be informed by August 25, 2027. If an ALC member fails to inform the Chair by the deadline, consideration of their request for research leave cannot be guaranteed. Leave requests received after the deadline will automatically be ranked below requests that are received by the deadline. For this reason, faculty are encouraged to communicate even the possibility of applying for a grant, even if they are not yet certain about doing so.

Additionally, prior to submitting the request to the chair, the faculty member must consult with other faculty members who may be impacted by the research leave; this applies especially to those in the faculty member’s sub-program within ALC (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, ALC, etc.). Details about this consultation should be included in the request to the Chair.

Limitations on Research Leaves and Sabbaticals

While we strongly encourage ALC faculty members to apply for research grants, we must also be sure that sufficient ALC faculty members are available to execute the department’s mission, including the staffing necessary to teach our courses. Ideally, no more than one third (rounded down) of the tenure-track faculty will be on research leave or sabbatical during a single semester. Thus, if ALC has 17 tenure-track faculty, then only five tenure-track faculty members should be on research leave or sabbatical in any one semester. This “approval limit” is an important guideline, but it may be exceeded at the discretion of the Executive Committee. Likewise, under unusual circumstances such as a large number of faculty with course releases, the Executive Committee may not be able to approve all leave requests, even if they are within the approval limit. In all cases, ALC will strive to make it possible for everyone to take a research leave, given our resource constraints.

Approval Process

According to UW policy, all leaves must be approved by the University Committee, with requests approved by the departmental Executive Committee. Probationary faculty require additional approvals from their Tenure Oversight Committee and the Chair. Probationary faculty are especially encouraged to consult early with their Tenure Oversight Committee and the Chair if they anticipate taking leave.

Once requests for research leaves and sabbaticals been received in a timely manner, the ALC Executive Committee will create a preliminary rank order of leave and sabbatical requests (see below for the ranking process). Each request for research leave that is ranked within the approval limit on total leaves and sabbaticals will be submitted to the EC for a vote as soon as the grant has been approved or other contingency has been cleared. Research leave requests beyond the approval limit will not be considered until all requests within the approval limit have been presented for vote to the EC, even if the requester has been approved for grant funding. For example, suppose that the approval limit is five faculty members on research leave or sabbatical during the fall semester of academic year 2028-2029, and five faculty members have been ranked within that limit. If a sixth faculty member has already received a grant for leave in that semester, that sixth faculty member must nevertheless wait until the other five cases ranked within the approval limit have been resolved (e.g., by having their grant proposals approved or rejected) before that sixth faculty member’s request can be presented to the EC for a vote.

Ranking of Requests

The priority for ranking requests for research leave is as follows:

1. Research leave requests from Assistant Professors are automatically ranked above all other requests. Requests from Assistant Professors who have never been on research leave are ranked above requests from Assistant Professors who have received research leave. The additional criteria below all assume that any requests from Assistant Professors have already been ranked above requests from tenured faculty.
2. Requests for sabbaticals are automatically ranked above requests for research leave from tenured faculty.
3. Requests from tenured faculty who have never been granted research leave will be ranked above those that have been granted research leave.
4. Requests from tenured faculty who have received a sabbatical or research leave more recently will be ranked below those who have not had a recent sabbatical or research leave. For example, in a pool of three tenured faculty who received leave in 2005, 2007, and 2011 respectively, the ranking would be in that order, with the person who has had the longest interval since their last leave (i.e., 2005) being ranked first.
5. In the event of a tie, priority will be given to those who have engaged in significant service, especially as ALC officers or as UW center or program directors.