Sabbatical
awards limited due to university budget
cuts
Policy:
Sabbatical awards have been limited due
to budget cuts, but more than $1.2 million
is still being spent annually.
By
Monica Pardee
On-line Forty-Niner
Sabbatical
policy at Cal State Long Beach is governed
not only by contracts and campus administrators,
but also by longstanding convention that
a professor in touch with his or her field
is a teacher keeping students abreast of
current knowledge.
Administrators
of all kinds attest to the benefits of sabbatical
and the gains to the scholarly environment
that outweigh the costs.
"Sabbaticals
are one of the principal forms of professional
development," David Dowell, vice provost
and director of strategic planning said.
"It's the way in which faculty are
able to stay energized about their field
of research and keep up with new developments,
and to complete scholarly projects of their
own. We get a teaching force that is much
more energized, up-to-date and effective."
More
than 280 faculty members were eligible for
sabbatical leave for 2004-05, but contractual
agreements mandate that administrators are
only required to award 36 each year. The
university will award close to the minimum
that is required due to budget cuts, Dowell
said.
"There
are many more faculty eligible for sabbaticals
each year than are granted sabbaticals,"
Dowell said. "In theory, all faculty
are eligible each seventh year, but even
during the best budget times we have not
been able to give sabbaticals to all faculty
who are eligible for them."
Biology
professor Chris Lowe is eligible for his
first sabbatical this year and is one faculty
member who was awarded a sabbatical for
spring 2005. He will spend a portion of
his semester 1,000 miles south of Hawaii,
tagging and tracking black tip sharks and
bonefish on Palmyra, a small, Pacific island
owned by The Nature Conservancy.
The
rest of the time he will spend in the northwesternmost
Hawaiian Islands studying the energetics
of Jacks by measuring their oxygen consumption
rates and the effect their presence has
on local monk seal populations.
"A
lot of this research I would love to do,
the only time I can normally do it is in
the summer," Lowe said. "Sometimes
that's the wrong season. This will give
me an opportunity to get out in the right
season, and have this big block of time
to do this work."
For
Lowe, his studies will not only help him
refresh, but help him serve his students
better, undergraduates and graduates alike.
Lowe has taken four grad students to Hawaii,
one a year, to participate in his research
projects.
"That's
the great thing about all the different
types of research I do is that I get to
use that as the training," Lowe said.
"And because it's kind of cool, and
I get to go to cool places, it really piques
students' interest."
Lowe
said he sees the need for sabbaticals. Faculty
members coming from UC campuses or private
universities can find the fast pace and
heavy course load of a CSU difficult to
adjust to, Lowe said.
"The
first six years of your life here are crazy,"
Lowe said. "In a way it's kind of an
award for surviving."
Another
professor of biology, Ray Wilson, completed
his sabbatical in the fall. Although he
has not published his findings or introduced
his research to the classroom, at least
until the fall, Wilson brought personal
research and experiences to the university
and his students.
"My
students of fall 2004 will be introduced
to some of my findings, as well as some
new information pertaining to the very interesting
ichthyofauna of southeastern Australia,"
Wilson said.
During
his sabbatical Wilson completed and submited
earlier research for publication in the
scientific journal Marine Ecology Press,
which should appear later this year. He
also completed a chapter for a textbook
that is now being published.
Within
the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
33 faculty members were eligible, but only
four professors applied and three sabbaticals
were awarded. There were similar circumstances
within the College of Liberal Arts. Although
87 faculty were eligible only 25 applied
and 12 sabbaticals were awarded.
Judy
Brusslan, former chairwoman of the sabbatical
leave committee for the College of Natural
Sciences and Mathematics, said she is unsure
of why more eligible faculty members do
not apply.
Dowell
said, "Part of it probably is discouragement
because some of them may have applied and
not been rewarded."
Lowe
said he thinks it may be due to the large
amount of work that is required once you
are awarded the sabbatical like applying
for research and travel grants.
"Part
of it is that it's kind of extra work,"
Lowe said. "For some faculty they may
look at that as not being worth it."
"On
average, replacement costs are about $18,000
for each sabbatical," Dowell said.
"The cost of all sabbaticals awarded
each year is estimated at about one half
of one percent of the total university budget."
The
total university budget for 2003-04 was
$257 million. Half of one percent equals
nearly $1.3 million, while the total spent
on tenure and tenure track faculty towers
above that figure at $57 million.
A
portion of that one-half percent is the
faculty member's salary. If a professor
or librarian takes a semester of sabbatical
leave, his or her salary remains the same.
This includes the accrual of sick leave
and vacation, as well as credit for service
toward promotion, although there may be
some loss to retirement contributions.
This
cost varies from faculty member to faculty
member. One faculty member awarded sabbatical
in the fall would have been awarded the
regular amount of his salary, roughly $35,900
for a semester. Costs similar to this salary
accrued for the roughly 36 faculty members
awarded sabbatical would reach $1.3 million
without accounting for any replacement costs
or benefits.
Some
of these costs are avoided for the College
of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, said
Brusslan.
"We
don't usually call in lecturers, we usually
just shuffle things around," Brusslan
said.
But
according to Wilson, his class in the fall
was taught by a 2003 graduate student, not
a regular faculty member.
Lowe
is responsible for the instruction of three
courses within the biological sciences department:
intro to marine biology for honor students,
advanced ichthyology and behavioral ecology.
He is uncertain who will teach those classes
during his sabbatical.
"That's
always my biggest concern," Lowe said.
"I don't want students to get stuck
and have to miss a year of taking a class."
Faculty
members who are awarded sabbaticals sign
an agreement requiring them to return to
CSULB and teach for at least as long as
they were on leave.
Faculty
members present their plan of research to
a peer sabbatical leave committee to apply
for the award.
"People
describe what their research will be during
their sabbatical," Brusslan said. "What
we're looking for is a solid research plan.
We like people to be doing research off-campus.
We prefer that, although it's not a requirement."
"We
like to give sabbaticals to people who have
been productive," Brusslan said. "We
want to give priority to people who have
been productive."
Faculty
are required to present the information
they researched during their sabbatical
leave to their department.
"They
have to write a report at the end of their
sabbatical that comes to academic affairs
and is read to see whether or not they've
accomplished the plan that they had laid
out in their original proposal," Cohn
said.
Dowell
said, "In future consideration, whether
or not those things have been produced will
become a factor."
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