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Procedural Notes on Sabbatical and Difference in Pay Leaves

These notes are not intended to be all-inclusive notes but to answer some of the common procedural questions for these types of leaves.

General information

• Sabbatical leaves and difference in pay (DIP) leaves are separate leave types, though both are paid leaves granted for research and professional development, of benefit to the campus. Sabbatical leaves undergo a campuswide peer review, and the campus is required to grant nine per year. Difference in pay leaves are, in effect, competitive within each school, and the campus has neither a requirement to grant them nor a limit on the number it can grant. All applications, whether for sabbatical or for difference in pay leave, are submitted to the applicant's department for review by a departmental committee.

• Applications are made during Fall semester on a schedule (with one exception, see "Off-cycle DIP applications" below) provided in a memo to each eligible faculty member and an e-mail to school and department offices, and also available on the Academic Affairs server and Faculty Affairs website.

Application Form

• The application form is available in both paper and electronic versions. The electronic version of the form is available on the Faculty Affairs Forms website, at http://www.sonoma.edu/aa/fa/facultyforms under Faculty Affairs - Leaves (Faculty). To obtain a paper copy, call Faculty Affairs at 664-2101.

• The application form serves primarily as a cover sheet for the applicant's package of information. The application package includes: a signed and notarized cover sheet with a bond of indemnity, promissory note in lieu of bond, or an accepted statement of assets, and a) a statement of purpose of the sabbatical or difference in pay leave; b) a description of the proposed project; c) a statement of CSU resources, if any, necessary to carry it out; d) a statement of the potential benefit for the University; e) a curriculum vitae; f) a summary of the nature of past service to the University and g) a statement of the time requested, not to exceed one year.

• Faculty frequently ask about the requirement for a bond, promissory note, or statement of assets. Required by Articles 27.9 and 28.11 of the collective bargaining agreement, the bond, note, or statement of assets provide confirmation that the faculty member will be able to repay salary in the event s/he chooses to leave the University without rendering the required period of service following return. The statement of assets, which has no cost associated with it, is the most commonly used method of providing this confirmation.

• The application form must be notarized. Customer Services offers notary services at no charge for sabbatical/difference in pay leave applications and other University-related forms. Faculty should call Customer Services at 664-2308 to ensure that a notary will be available.
  

Processing: number of copies, routing at the University level

The chart below shows the number of copies of the application needed at the University level.

Distribute to:*	Sabbatical Leave	Difference in Pay Leave
President*	N/A	Original
Dean or director	One copy	One copy
University RTP Comm.*	Original and five copies	N/A

*Faculty Affairs serves as the collection point for both the University RTP committee, for sabbatical applications, and the President, for difference in pay applications. The school committee should forward the applications for both types of leave, with its recommendations, both to the school dean/director and to Faculty Affairs in the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Stevenson 1041.

Off-cycle DIP applications

• Article 28.6 states, "When a faculty unit employee is afforded an unexpected opportunity, such as external funding, a scholarship or fellowship, a rapid and expedited review for a difference in pay leave will be provided." Such applications follow the routing described above for any other difference in pay leave, with the additional requirement that the application contain a statement describing the opportunity and explaining why the leave must be taken in the particular semester requested in order to take advantage of the opportunity.
• The faculty member must be eligible for a DIP leave in the semester in which s/he proposes to take the leave.
  

More Information

• The collective bargaining agreement describes these leaves in the following articles:
  

  Sabbatical Leaves, Article 27	http://www.calstate.edu/LaborRel/Contracts_HTML/CFA_CONTRACT/article27.shtml
  DIP Leaves, Article 28	http://www.calstate.edu/LaborRel/Contracts_HTML/CFA_CONTRACT/article28.shtml

• Campus policy is available online at http://www.sonoma.edu/UAffairs/policies/sabbaticalpolicy%20Rev07.html.
  Call Faculty Affairs at 664-2101 with any further questions.