A. Leave Without Pay

The Board of Regents may grant a faculty member a leave without pay for a period not to exceed one year (two consecutive academic semesters) for the faculty member to continue graduate work or engage in other professional activity or for other purposes approved by the appropriate Dean and the Vice President for Academic Affairs. Continuation of the leave without pay may be granted on an annual basis with the approval of the appropriate Dean, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the Board of Regents. Approval for both the initial leave request and for any request for continuation of such leave shall be granted only if there is a determination that the continuation of leave is in the best interest of the University. Determination if the continuation of leave is in the best interest of the University shall include considering the following:

• Department's ability to accommodate the continued leave without pay without loss of program integrity and without placing undue burden on other Employees;
• Extent of the financial impact on the University; and
• Impact on the University's ability to complete its mission and to fulfill its obligations.

The faculty member must request the continuation no later than the beginning of the last semester of the leave. Application for a leave without pay may be granted by the Board only after receiving the recommendations, through the President, of the Department Chair/Dean of the affected major academic unit and the Vice President for Academic Affairs. At the time leave is granted, the Board shall determine whether the period of leave without pay shall be credited towards the length of service requirements of the faculty member for promotion and/or tenure. Upon expiration of leave, the returning faculty member shall receive his/her class and office assignments from his/her Department Chair/Dean. The Department Chair/Dean shall also make a recommendation for the salary of the faculty member in the normal budgeting process. The recommendation for salary shall take into consideration salary increments to which such faculty would have otherwise been entitled had she/he not been in a leave without pay status.

B. Intergovernmental Exchange

The Board of Regents may authorize the exchange of Washburn University of Topeka employees to another governmental entity in the State of Kansas as provided by K.S.A. 75-4401 et. seq. Employees who participate in an intergovernmental exchange of personnel shall be considered during such participation to be in the status of leave without pay. The period of an employee's participation in an intergovernmental exchange shall not exceed two consecutive academic or calendar years. Application for participation in an intergovernmental exchange of personnel shall be initiated and awarded in the same manner as a leave without pay.

C. Academic Sabbatical Leave

The Academic Sabbatical Leave Program at Washburn University is designed to allow faculty members the opportunity for research and study, which will enable them to enrich substantially their teaching effectiveness and/or engage in a substantial scholarly project. Faculty are not required to engage in their university, school, and departmental obligations during the sabbatical leave.

Faculty members may use academic sabbatical leave to develop expertise outside their own academic discipline for the purpose of enhancing teaching abilities. The program is not designed for study programs leading to terminal degrees required for promotion and tenure.

The maximum number of sabbaticals granted in a particular year shall be equal to 4% of the full-time eligible faculty, excluding the Law faculty. Exceptions may be made by the Board of Regents if a larger number of well-qualified applications are received immediately following a year in which the limit was not reached. The number of sabbaticals that may be granted to Law faculty shall be determined by the Dean and the VPAA based on the School of Law budget and the needs of the Law School. Leaves are not awarded automatically, however, but are evaluated according to the merits of the proposals submitted. The Academic Sabbatical Committee shall give to unsuccessful applicants a brief narrative outlining the strengths and weaknesses of their sabbatical proposals.

1. Eligibility and Frequency

a. Only faculty members who have been considered full-time faculty at Washburn University for at least the six years preceding the date of
application shall be considered eligible.

b. Once a faculty member receives a leave, he/she may apply for another academic sabbatical in his/her sixth additional year of full-time service.

c. If a faculty member is awarded an academic sabbatical leave and then fails to use it without just cause, he/she will lose the opportunity to apply for another three years. Just cause would include failure of funding required for the proposal, unsuccessful candidacy for grants such as Fulbright, Mellon, McArthur, etc., which was a component of the candidate's sabbatical proposal, serious illness in the family, or other excusable emergency as determined by the Sabbatical Committee.

d. If a faculty member is recommended for but is not awarded an academic sabbatical leave grant due to the inconvenience to the University as determined by the Dean of the respective school or college, the faculty member will be allowed to take the academic sabbatical leave the next year with no diminution of number of leaves available that year.

2. Terms

a. A faculty member taking an Academic Sabbatical Leave shall:

1) Choose to have a leave for one semester at full pay or choose to have a leave for a full year at one-half pay of the salary budgeted for his/her position for the academic year of the sabbatical;
2) Have TIAA-CREF, group health, group life and disability insurance remain in effect during the period of leave;
3) Have salary increments for the next year equal to what one would customarily expect for the position; and
4) Have the time of the academic sabbatical leave credited toward promotion.

3. Restrictions

a. A faculty member accepting an academic sabbatical leave must:

1) Return to full-time service at Washburn University for the academic year immediately following the academic year in which the leave is taken.
2) Not accept other employment during the sabbatical period unless the position is part of the research or study program outlined in the leave proposal. Accepting grants such as Fulbright, Mellon, McArthur, etc., is not considered accepting employment. A faculty member violating either 1) of 2) above must repay the salary and value fringe benefits received during the academic sabbatical leave.

b. Grants normally will be made only if no full-time faculty replacement is required. To support the leave, course offerings may be reduced, delayed, or assigned to other members of the academic unit with their consent for one semester. Adjunct faculty may be used to help meet a portion of the course assignments. If the whole year is opted,
adjunct instructors will be used up to the extent of one-half the salary of the grantee.

4. Application Procedure

The applicant must complete the form designated by the Academic Sabbatical Committee and available from the Vice President for Academic Affairs office. The completed form must be submitted to the Vice President for Academic Affairs on the designated date of the year preceding the academic year during which the academic sabbatical leave would be taken.

The application should contain a written description of the type of study to be undertaken or work to be done in terms understandable to persons not specialists in the applicant's academic discipline. The proposed dates of the academic sabbatical leave should be included along with costs and other anticipated sources of support.

a. Value of the project. The applicant should demonstrate that the project will either:

1) enable the applicant to produce or to make substantial progress toward producing significant scholarly work or
2) substantially enhance the applicant's teaching effectiveness by increasing his/her body of knowledge or skills.

b. Evidence which effectively demonstrates the value of the project might be, but is not limited to:

1) the work contemplated will be of high quality, will contribute to an academic field and is likely to be completed successfully;
2) the project contemplated will enable the applicant to assume additional courses of study to be taught;
3) the project will directly benefit the University.

c. Why leave justified. The applicant should explain why the scope, nature, or location of the project makes it difficult or impossible to carry out as part of the normal activity expected of Washburn University full-time faculty.

5. Grant Approval

Approval of academic sabbatical leave shall be made by the Board of Regents upon recommendation of the President. The President receives a recommendation from the Vice President for Academic Affairs, who receives a recommendation from the Academic Sabbatical Committee.

Leaves are granted by action of the Board of Regents. The number of sabbaticals lies in the discretion of the Board of Regents.

6. Academic Sabbatical Leave Report

The faculty members shall submit a written report to the Dean of his/her school or college, with a copy to the Vice President for Academic Affairs for faculty records, no later than ninety (90) days after the conclusion of the academic sabbatical leave.

7. Standards and Procedures for Law Faculty Sabbatical Applications and Approvals

a. Requirements for application

Any member of the law faculty who has served six years as a full-time faculty member at Washburn and who has not received a sabbatical grant within the past six years may apply. Application must be made on the appropriate university form and submitted to the Office of the Dean of the Law School no later than November 1 of the year prior to the academic year during which the sabbatical will be taken.

While the normal sabbatical project will be a program of research leading to a substantial written report of high quality, the law school committee and the university committee will consider other programs of self-enhancement and creative activity as acceptable. Such programs, however, may not include study leading to the granting of an academic degree.

The typed application must contain a detailed description of the proposed sabbatical project and include the following information.

i. The reasons why the project will be of value and interest to the legal profession or to a law professor.
ii. The ways in which the project will enhance the professional growth of the applicant, by improving himself or herself as a teacher, or by developing his or her expertise.
iii. The past experience of the applicant in research, publication, or other activity that would indicate (a) the quality of any writing likely to be done and (b) the probability that the project will be completed.
iv. The scope, nature, or location of the project that prevents it being done as the normal activity every faculty member is expected to do as a part of his or her contract obligations.
Only applications for sabbaticals which meet these requirements will be forwarded with a favorable endorsement to the university for consideration.

b. Law School procedure for evaluating applications

i. There shall be a Sabbatical Committee of the Law School Faculty composed of three tenured faculty. Each member shall serve a three year term. A new member will be appointed each year so that there will be overlapping terms to provide continuity of experience and standards. At least two members shall have been past recipients of a sabbatical grant.

ii. This committee shall meet in November of each year to consider all applications for sabbatical grants received by the
Dean's Office prior to November 1 and shall file their report no later than November 21.

iii. The committee shall decide first whether the application meets the requirement of Section A.

iv. In the event that more than one application is to be forwarded with favorable endorsement to the university, the committee will rank the applications from that one most highly recommended.

Such report shall identify the committee's reasons for the ranking, including the committee's evaluation of the following factors:

(a) Relative value of the proposed project to the legal profession.
(b) Relative enhancement of each applicant's teaching and professional expertise.
(c) Relative likelihood, based on past research, publications and other activities that each applicant will do high quality work and will complete the project.
(d) Relative value of any other reasons submitted for the sabbatical program.
(e) In the event that two projects are ranked about equally on the preceding criteria, the project of the more senior faculty person or the one who has served longest since having a sabbatical grant will be ranked higher.

v. The report of the Faculty Sabbatical Committee shall be forwarded with the Dean's Recommendation to the University Committee.

D. Sweet Summer Sabbatical

Through the generosity of the late Mary B. Sweet, the Washburn University Foundation has established a summer sabbatical grant program for Washburn University faculty.

"The purpose of the 'Summer Faculty Grant' is to further the education and training of the recipients in their individual capacity by enabling the recipient to study a subject of his own choice at some university outside the state of Kansas. Study, however, may consist of travel if a definite design is in view by way of the training and educational development of the recipient." (Mary B. Sweet, 1958)

The most pertinent requirements provide:

1. That the recipients of the awards be full-time university employees with the rank of lecturer, senior lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor or professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business, the School of Nursing, the School of Applied Studies or the Center for Student Success and Retention, or a full-time librarian who is not a member of the Law School faculty who has completed a minimum of three years of full-time service.

2. That the income be used for faculty summer grants consistent with the purpose of the "Summer Faculty Grant' as stated above. Additional eligibility and award criteria are listed in the Application Guidelines.

3. That the recipients' study, work or travel be outside the State of Kansas for at least 30 consecutive days between the end of the spring semester and the beginning of the fall semester.

4. That applicants may receive Sweet Summer Sabbatical awards no more than twice in any four-year period. However, the selection committee may consider the recency and size of previous awards in considering the relative merits of proposals.

Applications are due in the office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs no later than the end of January in the spring semester for the coming summer from the applicant's department chair (when applicable) and dean.

Applications received by the Vice President will be referred to the Sweet Summer Sabbatical Committee for its recommendation concerning (1) which proposals are to be funded based on the criteria established and (2) the amount of each grant. Subsequent to the Sabbatical Committee's recommendations, the Vice President for Academic Affairs will make a recommendation to the Washburn University Foundation. The Washburn University Foundation will make final funding decisions.

The Washburn University Foundation will make all award payments directly to the recipient. The recipients are not employees of the Washburn University Foundation. The Washburn University Foundation will provide the recipient the required copy of the IRS form submitted to federal and state taxing authorities. Recipients of Sweet Sabbatical awards are required to submit a written report with the office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs no later than the end of September of the year the award was received. That report will specify the general activities of each day of the sabbatical.

E. Mabel Kline Law Sabbatical Leave Fund

Washburn College established the George A Kline and Mabel Kline Memorial Endowment Fund from a bequest received from Mabel Kline. A part of the net income from the fund is to be used for a Sabbatical Leave Fund for School of Law Faculty.

1. A few of the more pertinent facts regarding this Sabbatical Leave Fund are:

a. That the candidates be chosen from full-time instructors in the School of Law on tenure. (This includes the Dean and the law librarians provided they are full- time members of the faculty on tenure.)
b. That the grants be awarded in rotation according to the longest full-time service in the Washburn School of Law.
c. That the income be used for Faculty summer grants.
d. That "the number of grants awarded any summer will depend upon the amount of interest received that year...". (For practical purposes, the annual income is used for one sabbatical each summer.)
e. That the recipient study in some university outside of Kansas or if study includes travel, there be some definite report on return to the School of Law faculty in a verbal request.
f. That the grant implies return to Washburn for the next academic year or refund of the grant.
g. That in case a candidate is unable to use the grant when his/her turn comes, the name may head the list for the next summer.

2. The grants represent compensation to the recipient which is included in the gross income and subject to the with-holding of income tax. An application form available in the Dean's Office is to be prepared by the applicant and submitted to the Dean of the School of Law, who in turn forwards it with recommendation to the President of the University. The President submits the application to the Finance Committee of Washburn College for action. The Finance Committee of Washburn College serves as the awarding and policy-determining committee.

3. The faculty member shall submit a written report to the Dean of the Law School, with a copy to the Vice President for Academic Affairs for faculty records, no later than ninety (90) days after the conclusion of the Mabel Kline Law Sabbatical leave.