Yes. Because the Phillips proposal requires the applicant to make plans for collaborative work with leading scholar(s) in the field, an unsuccessful Phillips proposal does not require an extramural funding proposal to be considered for an Enhanced Sabbatical. Also note that the Phillips proposal asks for a Modification Plan describing how the project would be changed if funded with an Enhanced Sabbatical rather than a Phillips Fellowship.

No. Any complete but unsuccessful application for a Phillips Fellowship or an Enhanced Sabbatical will automatically be given consideration for a Base Sabbatical.

For a pre-tenure leave or a one-semester post-tenure sabbatical, the faculty member taking the leave is expected to teach three courses during the remainder of the academic year. In some cases, departments and programs apportion teaching credit in such a way that a faculty member may teach 2.5 courses in a given semester; in those cases, a faculty member may teach one semester of 2.5 courses, and take the pre-tenure leave in the other semester.

When a full-time faculty member takes a one-semester pre-tenure or sabbatical leave, the three courses taught during the remainder of the academic year may occur all in the other semester, or over one semester and Short Term, depending on the needs of the department or program. In many cases, however, it should be possible for a faculty member on such a leave to schedule all courses during one semester, thereby allowing a full semester and Short Term for the non-teaching responsibilities of the leave. For faculty who teach part-time (e.g. 4-course Lecturers), a 1-semester leave carries the responsibility to teach half of their regular teaching load in the other semester and/or Short Term. 

Accepting Enhanced Sabbatical Awards

Regular Timeline and Exceptional Circumstances

1 September: Sabbatical applications are due on September 1 of the year preceding the sabbatical. The Faculty Scholarship and Grants Committee then evaluates the proposals and conveys the award notifications to the applicants. 

7 October: Because of the need for timely arrangement of replacement courses, and because other faculty are often competing for a limited number of Enhanced Sabbatical awards, the normal timeline is that an Enhanced Sabbatical award needs to be accepted by the applicant prior to the 7 October deadline for chairs’ submission of three-year plans.

However, there is a set of exceptional circumstances in which it is possible for a faculty member to delay their decision to accept an Enhanced Sabbatical. Both of the following must be true:

• The number of faculty applicants for an Enhanced Sabbatical does not exceed the number of awards that can be made – i.e., other colleague(s) would not miss an Enhanced Sabbatical opportunity if the recipient later declines the offer;

AND

• The applicant’s academic unit(s) is asking the AAC for fewer than 3 courses associated with this sabbatical regardless of whether the person will ultimately be on leave for a semester or a full year.

If both of those conditions are met, then the applicant can accept/decline the Enhanced Sabbatical any time before 1 March, when our academic units are finalizing their course offerings for students to begin registering for the fall semester.

More Background Information

Sabbaticals, including Enhanced Sabbaticals, are intended to strengthen the faculty of the college by providing time for scholarship or other professional development. Additionally, sabbaticals require long-range institutional planning in order for us to deliver our curriculum and meet student enrollment needs.

Sabbatical application and review is part of a joint faculty resource allocation process by the Faculty Scholarship and Grants Committee (FSGC) and the Academic Affairs Council (AAC):

• September 1: Sabbatical applications are due
• ~ September 30: FSGC shares decisions on sabbatical awards
• October 7: 3 Year Plan (3YP) are due to the AAC. The 3YP includes academic unit requests for replacement courses.
•  Early December: AAC awards replacement course resources to academic units.
• Winter/Spring: Academic units make hires in alignment with grid planning and student registration for the coming academic year.

This process is designed to provide academic units with timely resources to reliably deliver our curriculum. In order to ensure stability in those resources, sabbatical offers from the FSGC must be accepted before the submission of 3YP on October 7th. In cases where an applicant’s feasibility of accepting an Enhanced Sabbatical is tied to the outcome of pending external funding proposals, the decision to accept the Enhanced Sabbatical can be postponed as late as 1 March only if the two conditions specified above are met.

A Lecturer or Senior Lecturer in a lectureship who has taught twenty continuous semesters at Bates is eligible to apply for an initial sabbatical. To receive a sabbatical after twenty semesters, the Lecturer should apply during the nineteenth semester (that is during fall of the tenth year). After the initial sabbatical, Lecturers and Senior Lecturers are eligible to apply for sabbaticals after each twelve semester period of teaching at Bates. A sabbatical for a Lecturer or Senior Lecturer shall consist of half the contracted courses for the year at the Lecturer or Senior Lecturer’s regular salary, or, at the option of the Lecturer  or Senior Lecturer, all the contracted courses and units for the year at one-half that salary.  Although Enhanced Sabbaticals and Phillips Fellowships are open only to Senior Lecturers, the Base Sabbatical program is open to both Senior Lecturers and Lecturers in ongoing appointments.

In the absence of extenuating circumstances, faculty on leave are replaced with the following likelihoods: always for Phillips if requested. For other leaves, the AAC, after discussion with impacted academic units, replaces faculty when necessary to fill curricular gaps and ensure coverage.

Yes, if the application is through a recognized scholarly institute or artist residency and if the award process is competitive and peer-reviewed.

No. However, if the grant does include salary, it can be used to bring one’s salary to 100% plus an additional 2/9th for summer salary.

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) in Coram Library, Shonna Humphrey, Director at 786-6243 or shumphre@bates.edu. ORSP is available to assist with various aspects of proposal preparations, including the identifying appropriate sources of funding, crafting a proposal, inclusion of general information about the college, and preparation of a budget.

No. Different scholarly fields and different types of scholarly work have different paces within which new work is ready for dissemination. The expectation is that suitable dissemination relevant to an individual’s field of work will result before the next sabbatical. When applying for the next enhanced sabbatical, the C.V. submitted with the application must indicate which published work resulted from the previous enhanced sabbatical.

Yes, under exceptional circumstances. Going on sabbatical for a calendar year rather than an academic year poses challenges for replacing the faculty member and thus is considered only in special circumstances. Any exploration of such a schedule should begin with an early conversation with the Dean of Faculty.

Yes. Any academic unit to which you supply courses must know about your leave plans. To whatever extent your teaching is divided across units, the impact of your sabbatical on each unit should be reflected in each unit’s 3-year plan.

No.