Any tenured faculty member who has completed six (6) years of satisfactory service at The University of Montana prior to the year for which sabbatical assignment is requested shall be eligible to apply for such assignment. A faculty member starting a sabbatical assignment shall have completed at least twelve (12) semesters or their equivalent of full-time service at The University of Montana since a prior sabbatical assignment. The elapsed academic terms need not be consecutive, but no more than two (2) semesters shall be counted for any one (1) fiscal year. Academic terms for which other types of leave were granted shall be excluded in determining academic terms of service.

Faculty must have already been awarded tenure in order to be eligible to apply for sabbatical. It is not possible to apply for sabbatical in the same year that one is applying for tenure.

For Sabbatical Assignment to be granted, an eligible faculty member must formally request assignment. The application for Sabbatical Assignment shall include:

• A completed Sabbatical Assignment Application Form, including comments and recommendations from the Chair and Dean;
• a definitive detailed plan for the scholarly or professional use of the Sabbatical;
• anticipated future value of completion of the Sabbatical to the applicant, students, the department, and the University;
• a complete vita including a record of all professional activities;
• a listing of the specific semester(s) for which assignment is requested;
• a description of any fellowship or grant or other arrangement which would aid in financing or otherwise supporting the proposed project; and

• the applicant's signed agreement to return to full-time service with the University for a period equal to the length of the sabbatical following expiration of the assignment or to refund the compensation paid him/her by the University during such assignment unless this obligation is specifically waived by the President or his/her designee.

Following is a list of deadlines for the Sabbatical Assignment application process. The application must completed in the academic year prior to the year in which the Sabbatical Assignment is desired.

October 30: Deadline for faculty member to submit the complete Sabbatical Assignment application (as detailed above) to his or her Dean.

November 20: Deadline for the Dean to submit to the Sabbatical Assignment Committee all applications with comments and recommendations for each.

December 15: Deadline for the Sabbatical Assignment Committee to submit to the Provost its ranking of the applications and its recommendations.

Sabbaticals are extremely important to many faculty as a way to advance their scholarship, professional development, and collaborations. Sabbaticals are not automatically granted to all eligible faculty – there is a process of application, evaluation, and decision making spelled out in CBA 11.100.

 The University is committed to support “as many sabbatical assignments as possible within the limits of available funding” (CBA 11.100) and the CBA describes a process which consists of a faculty committee that evaluates and makes recommendations to the Provost by ranking the applications.

 Consistent with the CBA, the awards process is as follows:

1.      The Sabbatical Assignment Committee reviews applications, discusses them, and delivers their recommendations to the Provost in mid-December. Their review includes assigning each application a score.
2.     The Provost’s office receives the scores and adds information about the financial impact of each sabbatical based on whether each application is for a year-long sabbatical assignment or a semester-long sabbatical assignment.
3.     Using the Sabbatical Assignment Committee review scores, the Provost determines a cutoff score for awarding year-long sabbatical assignment applications, and a cutoff score for awarding semester-long sabbatical assignment applications. This is designed to result in the maximum number of sabbaticals being awarded that is possible (given the funds that are available), consistent with the rankings.
4. Typically, year-long sabbaticals are cost neutral or positive, and semester sabbaticals require an investment of funds – so year-long sabbaticals help us afford more semester length sabbaticals. The fund balance of year-long and semester sabbaticals plus an investment of funds from the Provost’s office results in as many sabbatical assignments as possible being funded while following the Sabbatical Assignment Committee review scores. Applications are not moved up or down the scored list based on cost.

The Collective Bargaining Agreements (Section 11.150) require that a faculty member submit a report summarizing the activities and results of his or her Sabbatical Assignment project within one semester of completion of the Sabbatical Assignment.

Please email your sabbatical report to officeoftheprovost@umontana.edu.