Faculty Professional Leave (FPL)/Sabbatical Policy

Information on faculty professional leave is presented in the OAA Policy on Faculty Professional Leaves.The information provided below supplements these policies.

The Associate Dean for Faculty will review all requests for faculty professional leave and make a recommendation to the Dean. The Associate Dean’s recommendation will be based on the quality of the proposal and its potential benefit to the College and to the faculty member as well as the ability of the College to accommodate the leave at the time requested. A maximum of 10% of the College’s faculty may be on FPL at the same time.

The purpose of faculty professional leave is to promote Glenn College research through conducting research and possibly through travelling and thus establishing new relations with a host institution. Only faculty who have achieved tenure with The Glenn College as the tenure initiating unit are eligible for faculty professional leave (sabbatical) under this policy.

Preference will be given to faculty proposals that contribute to the faculty member’s knowledge creation portfolio and the College’s research goals. Demonstrated past success in generating research identified as a “primary output” in the College’s Appointment, Promotion and Tenure document will increase the chances of approval. Strong proposals will be based on a track record of past knowledge creation success and lay out a viable strategy for future knowledge creation that results in “primary outputs.” Proposals may include some teaching and/or service activities, but the primary objective of a sabbatical leave will be research.

Proposals that only identify the research activities that the faculty member will engage in but not a strategy for generating “primary outputs” will not be approved.

The College will also assess the impact of the faculty member’s absence on the College’s teaching, research, public and academic service activities, as well as the financial impact of the proposed leave during the proposed sabbatical period when making a determination. The College aspires to offer faculty members with a demonstrated track record of teaching, research, and public and academic service the opportunity to further develop their research through Faculty Professional Leave, but in any given year there is no requirement that the College approve any proposal.

To apply for faculty professional leave/sabbatical, the faculty member must submit a proposal that contains detailed information about a research project and a host institution to the Associate Dean for Faculty Development by the following deadlines:

Sabbatical Period and Application Due Date
Autumn Semester (August-December)
January 31

Spring Semester (January-May)
September 30

Academic Year
January 31

The proposal should include:

• a description of the planned research activities and projected research outputs;
• the proposed timing and duration of the faculty member’s professional leave
• requested College resources to ensure the sabbatical is successful
• in the case that the sabbatical will be spent elsewhere, include background on the host institution (e.g. name, contact information, along with the CV of potential collaborators, if relevant);
• how the faculty member plans to participate in the academic life of the host institution (e.g. research talks etc.);

The College will potentially provide the following resources as determined by the College’s Dean based on availability and need: 

1. Facilitating interactions with Ohio State University’s Office of International Affairs in the case of faculty who require various documentation (e.g. visas, proof of health insurance).
2. All visa processing fees and shipping charges associated with the visa process may be provided by the Glenn College.

The College will not provide assistance for

1. Housing;
2. Amenities or services for faculty member’s family (e.g. schooling for children)