Introduction

A sabbatical is a period of paid time away from campus for a faculty member to engage in other scholarly pursuits, such as research, travel, or writing.

Challenges

• Reasoning may vary and require different documentation for each type (e.g., travel vs. writing).
• Many levels of approval are required, with reasoning needed at each step.
• Once leave is approved, individuals must be notified to coordinate follow-up administrative activities.

Solutions

• Consider using a multitrack template to separate different types of requests.
• Build a routing step for each level of approval, and pass feedback on at each stage.
• During the award process, copy any relevant stakeholders, such as Human Resources, Registrar, and Payroll representatives.

Tips

• If many different documents are needed, ask faculty members to combine them into one PDF file for easy viewing. Alternatively, if it will be more helpful for reviewers to look at the documents in a certain order, create them as separate file uploads on the Requirements page.
• If approvals align with your organizational structure (i.e., Department Chairs, Deans, etc.) you may be able to automate your approval process using Department Driven Routing Steps.
• Before awarding, download a PDF of the submission with or without reviews to attach to the award email as summary of the request.
• If the request is not approved, share feedback with the faculty member for transparency.
• Use progress reports to collect information from the faculty member upon their return, such as publications or other outcomes.
• Copy the process to make a fresh version for each cycle, which keeps the requests easy to access and compare over time. For example, administrators can quickly see how many requests from a certain department were awarded in a given semester. 

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