Sabbatical-like Leave for Senior Lecturers in the IU School of Liberal Arts
All Senior Lecturers are eligible for a sabbatical-like leave after seven years of full-time service in the IU School of Liberal Arts (service as Lecturer counts; six [6] years after completing a sabbatical-like leave senior lecturers are eligible to apply again). In order to assure that programmatic needs are met during the sabbatical-like leave, Senior Lecturers need to work closely with their respective chairs or program directors when applying for a sabbatical-like leave. The Senior Lecturer needs to be supported by the chair or program director for any type of sabbatical-like leave application.
The schedule and school policies and procedures for sabbatical-like leave applications are essentially the same as those for sabbatical leave applications of tenured faculty, except that there is no option for a yearlong sabbatical-like leave at half-salary.
Eligible Senior Lecturers on ten-month appointments have the option of being released from any teaching and service responsibilities in either fall or spring semester, always with the proviso that all sabbatical leaves need to be arranged well in advance with the chair or program director, so that the needs of the department can be taken into consideration. All leaves must also have the consent of the dean, but they do not need campus review.
In some cases eligible senior lecturers may opt for teaching twelve (12) credit hours over the course of the academic year, an option for a reduced teaching load that releases the faculty member from service responsibilities for one of the two semesters in the academic year. In effect, all sabbatical-like leaves are for one semester, even in those cases where the teaching load release is distributed over the academic year.
Eligible Senior Lecturers need to submit a detailed project proposal to the departmental chair and the Dean’s office of the School of Liberal Arts that is modeled after project proposals required for sabbatical leave applications by tenured faculty (See IU Indianapolis Faculty Handbook, p. 84). Proposals may include (e.g.):
- A project for professional development that enhances the teaching of the Senior Lecturer
- A project focused on the scholarship of teaching
- Course or curriculum development
- Research in the discipline that clearly bears a connection to excellence in teaching
Upon completion of the sabbatical-like the Senior Lecturer will submit a written report (modeled on the reports about sabbatical leaves) and will commit to a presentation about the project to colleagues, alumni, students, and staff of the school.
Following the guidelines for sabbatical leaves in the Faculty Handbook, Senior Lecturers pledge to return to their academic duties for at least one academic year immediately following the leave. Should that not occur, they shall reimburse Indiana University for any salary, retirement contributions, and insurance premiums paid during the sabbatical-like leave.
According to the Faculty Handbook regarding sabbatical leaves, “Faculty members enrolled in a managed care health care plan who plan to be out of the Indianapolis area during their sabbatical leave may want to consider enrolling in a PPO Healthcare Plan (Preferred Provider Organization, Administered by Anthem) during the leave period. For managed care plans, coverage outside the service area is limited to emergency care while on sabbatical leave.”