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MOA: UNPAID SABBATICAL LEAVE OPTION
Preamble: It is in the interest of both the faculty
and administration of Lane Community College to establish an
unpaid sabbatical leave program that will provide an
additional option for professional development that will
improve a faculty member' s contribution or capacity
to contribute to the success of the college. Accordingly,
this Memorandum of Agreement sets forth the framework for an
initial unpaid sabbatical program. This initial program
shall be considered a pilot test for a period of four (4)
years. At the end of the four (4) year period a thorough
analysis will be undertaken jointly to determine if the
program should be continued, changed, or discontinued.
1. General Description. Following seven (7) years of
continuous contracted service, a faculty member may receive
an unpaid sabbatical leave for a period not to exceed one
year for study, research, travel or other purpose designed
to improve the faculty member' s ability to contribute
to college goals. Sabbatical leaves of less than full-time
may be taken. A faculty member may not receive more than one
such unpaid leave during a continuous four-term period per
each five-year period following the initial seven-year
period and within five-years of the last unpaid sabbatical
leave. This unpaid sabbatical leave program shall be
separate and independent of any other sabbatical or leave
program, including in the application and qualification
process.
2. Program Administration. A joint Unpaid Sabbatical
Review Committee will be established with up to three
faculty and three administration representatives chosen by
the Association and Instruction vice-president(s)
respectively.
2.1 Sabbatical Review Process. The
specific process for reviewing and monitoring proposals
will be developed by the joint Committee.
2.2 Annual Cost Review. The joint Committee will
accumulate cost data for the pilot program and make a
report to the Association and College. The parties agree
that the program should be generally cost neutral. Should
the program generate excessive savings the College and
Association shall meet to decide how these funds shall be
used within Instruction. Should the program generate
excessive costs, the College and Association will meet to
decide how the program may be adjusted to eliminate those
excessive costs or, if that proves infeasible,
terminated.
3. Faculty Support. Sources of support for faculty
shall be made available from the college.
3.1 Continuing Health Insurance Coverage.
During the period of the unpaid sabbatical leave, the
college will pay the entire cost of insurance benefits
that the faculty member had at the time the leave was
approved.
3.2 Seniority/Job Protection. During the
sabbatical leave the faculty member will continue to
accumulate seniority, retain rights to the same position,
receive compensation for any work, and retain all other
rights and responsibilities upon returning, as if the
faculty member had been working continuously at a full
level.
3.3 Deferred Compensation. The College shall
establish, pending verification of feasibility, a
deferred compensation program so that the faculty member
may defer income (and accumulated interest) to be used
during the unpaid sabbatical leave and receive any tax
savings accrued.
3.4 Continuing Service. The support for the
faculty member specified in this Article shall not be
guaranteed once the faculty member retires or makes a
commitment to engage in employment or other life activity
inconsistent with continued employment at Lane Community
College. The College and Association shall timely meet to
discuss such situations.
4. Proposal Process.
4.1 Proposal Deadlines. Sabbatical
proposals must be submitted, originally or on appeal, to
the Sabbatical Review Committee and the appropriate
Division Chair by the last day of the academic term that
falls three (3) terms prior to the intended commencement
of the sabbatical. A decision will be made and provided
the applicant in writing no later than fifteen (15)
working days after the request was received. (For
example, the proposal must be submitted by the end of
fall term for a sabbatical beginning in next fall
term.)
4.2 Right to Return if Sabbatical does not Occur.
The College will make reasonable efforts to create
flexibility in replacements in faculty on leave, in case
those faculty desire to return. After the deadline to
apply, if a proposal is approved and accepted but the
faculty members cannot follow through on the leave, the
College will attempt to fully return the faculty member
to their original position or other assignment including
curriculum development, but may not be able to due to
irreversible arrangements made to replace the faculty
member. In such cases, the College and Association will
timely meet to discuss the matter.
4.3 Proposal Content Criteria. The sabbatical
leave proposal will include (1) a plan for study,
research, travel or other activities proposed by the
applicant to benefit the college by improving the quality
the faculty member' s contribution to the college
mission and goals or the capacity of the faculty member
to contribute to the college mission and goals; (2) a
review of a peer committee of the plan indicating a
positive assessment of the proposal and indicating that
the proposal made use, as appropriate, of the input of
peers - these peers including all, or at least four,
contracted faculty in the immediate discipline of the
proposer; (3) plans for dissemination at LCC of the
sabbatical results and a follow-up report including an
element of peer review of the sabbatical experience.
4.4 Maintenance of Stability and Quality of
Instruction Criteria. The sabbatical leave requires a
reasonable level of maintenance and stability of the
quality of instruction. It is the intent of the
administration and division chairs to work toward
granting sabbatical requests. It is the intent of the
application process to encourage faculty to mutually
settle planning and coordination issues before proposals
are made, and also to allow faculty to work with each
other and department/division managers to identify and
remove barriers to sabbaticals. The division chair will
review the timing and level of the leave request along
with possible leave replacements and make a judgement
about maintaining a reasonable level of stability and
quality of instruction. If the chair cannot give a
positive judgement, he/she shall provide the requestor
the reasons in writing.
4.5 Approval. If the proposal meets the rigor
outlined in 4.3 and the division chair' s
assessment is that instructional quality can be
reasonably maintained as called for in 4.4, the proposal
shall be approved by the Sabbatical Review Committee. If
not, the proposer shall be provided in a timely manner a
summary of the reasons for denial in writing.
4.6 Re-applying. A faculty member denied a
sabbatical may resubmit his/her proposal at any future
time provided the proposal has been appropriately
modified or conditions have changed so that an identical
proposal under identical conditions is not being
resubmitted.
4.7 Appeals. A faculty member may appeal the
decision of the Sabbatical Review Committee back to the
Committee for reconsideration. If an issue of proposal
rigor is at stake, the appeal must be a joint appeal by
the majority of the faculty member' s immediate
peers, and the Committee will make the final judgement.
If an issue of logistics is at stake, the appropriate
Instruction vice-president will investigate and assess in
good faith any new information submitted. The
vice-president's judgement will decide this matter.
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