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Ladder-Rank Faculty Course Release Policy

Faculty are released of one course for each quarter of sabbatical upon Chair's approval. Typically, courses are released one at a time from small graduate to large undergraduate. If the graduate course is a proseminar, additional Chair approval is required. The sabbaticals need not be continuous. If faculty are released of a course out of sequence, they must return to the sequence the following year.

The course release corresponds to an individual faculty member's teaching load. For example, those who teach two large undergrad classes would be released of a large undergrad class for the second and third sabbaticals.

Single quarter sabbaticals will only provide release of one course per sabbatical. This means that 3 individual sabbatical quarters (with 1 released course per sabbatical) may not be the same release as if a full year sabbatical were taken (all released courses could be up to 6 for instance, particularly for Teaching Professors).

Sabbatical-in-Residence Course Release

The department will release a faculty member of their graduate course or small undergraduate course for a sabbatical-in-residence, either cycling between the two or being released of more graduate courses than small undergraduate. This release does not affect their regular sabbatical release sequence.

Other Leave Course Release Policy

When campus policy allows for course release because of a particular action (e.g., ASMD, LWOP, medical leave, Univ Admin Appt.), the department will grant course release in accordance with its most urgent teaching needs. Typically, this will require that the faculty member teach his/her large undergraduate class, so that release should be expected to be of the small undergraduate class (or, less typically, the graduate class).

Course Buyout Policy

Faculty may use extramural funds to buy out of up to 2 courses per year, at the rate of 1/6 of the participant's 9-month salary per course. A faculty must still teach a minimum of two courses during the year, at least one of which must be an undergraduate course. (Note, it is allowable for the second required course being taught to be a 'soft' course, such as independent study courses with students, graduate lab courses.) The rotation from small to large courses does not apply to buyouts, but rather only sabbatical course release.

Additional policy details and forms can be found on the Division of Social Sciences website.