Faculty Leave Procedures

Short-Term Leave (any 7 calendar days or less)

Please complete the Short-Term Leave Request form at least one week before an anticipated short absence (or as soon as possible after you learn of a need to be away).

EECS Faculty Long-term Leaves: General Information

First, please read the Department’s Leave Policy Statement.

If you envision any sort of semester- or year-long leave during the coming year, please contact Julia Flinker at jflinker@eecs (CS Academic Personnel, 381 Soda; 3-6618) or Jean Richter at richter@eecs (EE Academic Personnel, 223 Cory; 3-8208) and fill out a Leave Request Form as soon as possible.

Leave request forms are due back, for Chairs’ review, no later than middle of January, before the beginning of the Spring semester.

We need to know your sabbatical, research, or industrial leave requests by January each year in order to meet tight deadlines for course scheduling and temporary academic staffing budget decisions.

Leaves requested after the deadline are subject to a much higher probability of refusal due to course staffing and other considerations. In addition, faculty members requesting leaves after the deadline must provide a suitable replacement to teach their classes.

Sabbatical Leaves: Accruing and Using Credits

One semester of sabbatical leave credit is earned in each semester that a faculty member is in academic-year service at 50% time or more. This means that if you go on 50% (or less) Research or Industrial Leave, you still earn a sabbatical leave credit for that semester. But going on Research or Industrial leave at 51% (or more) means you do not earn a sabbatical credit. Semesters spent on any percent of sabbatical leave do not earn sabbatical leave credit.

To take a sabbatical leave uses up accrued sabbatical leave credits. Here is a table  showing the number of sabbatical leave credits required, under UC Academic Personnel Policy, for ladder-rank faculty members (Assistant Profs, Associate Profs, Full Profs) for various lengths and percentages of sabbatical leaves. Lecturers SOE and PSOE, please note that a type of leave equivalent to Sabbatical is provided for in UC policy for this teaching title. The leave is called Leave-in-lieu-of-sabbatical, and the rules for accrual of credits and their use for leaves of varying percentages, are identical to those for Sabbatical leaves in the Professorial series (since 2014).

Anyone who wishes to take a sabbatical leave (or Leave-in-lieu-of-sabbatical) that would use fewer sabbatical leave credits than have been accrued may request deferral of unused credits. If the request is approved, the unused credits will remain available for use the next time a sabbatical leave (or Leave-in-lieu-of-sabbatical) is taken.

Generally speaking, the minimum sabbatical leave in EECS is one semester at 67% salary. The 44% and 56% levels are only used if the faculty member has no more than 4 or 5 sabbatical leave credits accumulated. Note that, depending on whether/what other supplemental funding sources may be utilized to augment the sabbatical pay, the 44% level may require the individual to make arrangements for continuance of his/her UC benefits coverage (self-paid basis).

In all cases, sabbatical leave is applied for, and applications are reviewed/approved by the Chair and the Dean based on Departmental academic staffing and other considerations. The application requires a Sabbatical Program Statement, which must accompany sabbatical leave paperwork.

Upon return from sabbatical leave, a brief Sabbatical Report must be filed with the Department, giving a “statement of progress on the project described in the sabbatical application.”.

Your Pay During Sabbatical Leave

University policies preclude faculty members from receiving additional compensation while on sabbatical leave (e.g., from a host institution) except for nominal honoraria or travel reimbursements. The only exceptions to this rule are that faculty may receive research funds from UCB sponsored research projects (if they will be working on these projects during the leave). This is often used during a partial salary sabbatical to bring the level of salary up to 100% (e.g., a 67% salary sabbatical may be supplemented by 33% salary from ERSO funds). Salary may also be supplemented up to 100% by a host university when a faculty member is engaged in a research or teaching project at a foreign university.

Here is additional important information on Sabbatical Leave’s effect on pay and benefits, and medical plan benefits when living away from home.

Research Status (Research Appointments Paid by ERSO During the Academic Year)

Please note the ERSO pay periods for research appointments were brought into line with the regular faculty salary pay periods as of 2010-11. Your salary as an EECS professor is paid over 12 months (July 1 to June 30 for each academic year), and funds housed in ERSO which are used to pay for a research appointment will also be paid out over 12 months (July 1 to June 30). The change was made by ERSO to ensure your full UC Retirement System service credit for each academic year, even if a research appointment comprises part of that year.

Leave Without Pay

Going on Industrial Leave or other forms of leave can involve a Leave Without Pay from your faculty appointment. If your faculty appointment level drops below 50%, you can lose your UC benefits. At any level, Leave Without Pay reduces your retirement service credit accrual. If you are considering a period of Leave Without Pay status, contact Julia Flinker at jflinker@eecs (381 Soda; 3-6618) or Jean Richter at richter@eecs (223 Cory; 3-8208). Also, review the UC Benefits Leave Without Pay Fact Sheet (pdf).