Sonoma State University, Academic Programs

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 at http://www.sonoma.edu/aa/fa/facultyforms under Faculty Affairs - Leaves (Faculty).

  • 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.

The effect of Sabbatical and Difference in Pay leaves on pay and benefits

The discussion below is by no means comprehensive, but touches on some of the most common questions.

  • Pay:  For many faculty, a critical element of deciding for which type of leave to apply is the pay rate during the leave.  Pay during a one-semester sabbatical (or equivalent period for 12-month employees such as Librarians) is unchanged from the current rate of pay.  To calculate pay on a Difference in Pay leave or a Sabbatical of two semesters or the equivalent period for 12-month employees:

          •  Two-semester Sabbatical:

Find your gross rate of pay on a recent pay stub; this will be listed as “gross rate,” not “taxable gross.”  Divide your current gross rate of pay in half.  Percentage-based deductions such as tax withholding and retirement contributions will also be cut in half; you may fall into a lower tax bracket, and tax withholding may be reduced even more than half.  Fixed-amount deductions such as health insurance premiums will be unchanged.  This rate of pay will apply over 12 months.

          •  Difference in Pay Leave: 

Calculation of the Difference in Pay leave is outlined in Article 28.3 of the collective bargaining agreement:

The salary for a Difference in Pay leave for a faculty unit employee shall be the difference between the faculty employee's salary and the minimum salary of the instructor rank. The salary for a Difference in Pay leave for a librarian employee shall be the difference between the librarian employee's salary and the minimum salary of the lowest comparable time base librarian rank. The salary for a Difference in Pay leave for a counselor employee shall be the difference between the counselor employee's salary and the minimum salary of the instructor rank at the comparable time base.

Percentage-based deductions such as tax withholding and retirement contributions will be based on this reduced rate of pay; you may fall into a lower tax bracket, and tax withholding may be reduced.  Fixed-amount deductions such as health insurance premiums will be unchanged.  This reduced rate of pay will apply over 6 months for each semester of leave or for each of the months of leave for 12-month employees.

  • Benefits:  Benefits are not affected at all by one-semester (full pay) Sabbaticals.  For two-semester (half pay) Sabbaticals and Difference in Pay leaves, some benefits continue unchanged, while others are affected:

  • University-paid medical, life, and disability benefits are unchanged:  These include health, dental, and vision insurance, and/or FlexCash; university-paid life insurance; university-paid long term disability insurance; and sick leave accrual.

  • Retirement-related benefits are affected in proportion to the pay received:  Your Social Security contributions are a percentage of your monthly pay; when your pay is reduced, the Social Security contributions are reduced in proportion.  Social Security averages earnings over so many years that this is unlikely to have much or any effect on most faculty, but you may wish to contact Social Security to confirm the impact.  

More significantly, your service credit under PERS will be reduced in proportion to the pay received (for example, a two-semester Sabbatical at half pay will result in the accrual of half a year of PERS service credit, rather than a full year).  Service credit is one of the factors in the calculation of the PERS retirement allowance, so such a reduction can have a noticeable effect on the retirement allowance.  It is possible to purchase the lost service credit after your return from leave.

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.
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