Guidelines for Faculty Leaves.

Faculty may take a leave of absence for a variety of reasons, including sabbatical, medical, and personal and family leaves. When planned in advance, the faculty member should coordinate with their Department Chair to ensure their normal activities, including course instruction, administrative roles, committee membership, and mentoring and guidance of research staff, will be covered while they are out. In the event of a sudden absence, the Department Chair will work with the Associate Dean for Education to ensure courses will be covered and will serve as the mentor for research staff until other arrangements can be made. The Department Administrator shall serve as the supervisor for research staff for timesheets, performance evaluations, and any other Human Resources process needs. The Department Administrator and Department Chair will work with SPH Central Administration to address any other needs.

A.    Faculty Sabbatical Leaves
The Boston University School of Public Health (SPH) grants sabbatical leaves for the purpose of encouraging faculty members to engage in scholarly research or other activities leading to professional growth and an increased capacity for service to the University. After each period of at least six years of full-time service at Boston University, faculty members may be considered for a sabbatical leave consisting of one half year at full salary coverage or one full year at 50% salary coverage. To make sabbatical leave possible, responsibilities within the department will be adjusted to take account of the faculty member’s absence. A faculty member on sabbatical leave retains all employee benefits during the leave period. Please refer to Section VII.7.Sabbatical for more details.

B.    Faculty Vacation Time
Faculty may take up to one month of vacation per year and may be scheduled at a faculty member’s discretion. Faculty are encouraged to arrange for any necessary coverage in advance and notify their department chair and department administrator of their absence. Vacation time does not carry over year-to-year.

C.    Personal and Family Leaves
Qualifying personal and family leaves may be paid or unpaid, depending on the circumstances. The policy at Boston University incorporates the provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave Law (PFML) and other relevant federal and state personal and family leave laws and presents the University’s general service eligibility requirements for and specific details of each leave type. For more information about the leave policies, see bu.edu/handbook/leaves-absences/faculty-personal-and-family-leave-policies/.

Personal and family leave benefits are administered by Matrix Absence Management. For more information about how to access leave benefits, see bu.edu/hr/lifebu/paid-family-and-medical-leave/for-full-time-faculty/how-to-access-benefits-faculty/.