1
Ad Hoc Benefits Report on Parental Leave
at the University at Albany, SUNY
DRAFT 2/10/2006
Committee Members:
Angie Chung (2005-2006)
Kirsten Davison (2005-2006)
Gwen Moore (2004-2006)
Joel Berkowitz (2005-2006)
Bill Reese (2004-2006)
Ben Shaw (2004-2006)
Jenny Stromer-Galley (2004-2006) (Chair)
Lisa Thompson (2004-2005)
In September 2004 an Ad Hoc Benefits Committee was formed in the University Life
Council to investigate the parental and family leave policy at the University at Albany,
SUNY. During the year, the committee held meetings with representatives of United
University Professions (UUP) and University at Albany administrators, invited feedback
from faculty, reviewed the University’s maternity leave policy, investigated child care
facilities for faculty, and reviewed the family leave policies of peer and aspirational-peer
institutions. In that process we narrowed our task to questions specific to parental leave,
setting aside for the time being the challenges raised by elder care. The pages that follow
describe our findings. Resources cited in this document have been included at the end of
the document with URLs to the original sources.
Limitations of the Current Family Leave Policy
The motivation to investigate the University at Albany’s family leave policy resulted
from observations that the policies for faculty concerning child rearing and child care are
inadequate. The current policy, detailed in the next section, does not give mothers or
fathers enough time with their children before having to return to work, positions female
faculty who are new to the University to take a maternity leave without pay, and does not
extend paid leave to adoptive parents. The present leave policy situates teaching faculty
who are expecting parents in the difficult position of having to start a course and then
leave half way through the semester to give birth, or if they give birth at the beginning or
end of the semester to teach a few weeks of the course before or after taking their leave.
Department chairs and expecting parents must juggle teaching responsibilities, sometimes
requesting other faculty in the department to take an “overload” and fill in for the
expecting parent. Some department chairs are quite accommodating; others are not. The
result is an uneven experience and sometimes an unfair distribution of benefits for new
parents.
Negative Implications of the Current Policy
There are several negative consequences of an inadequate parental leave policy. First,
President Hall has provided a five year vision for this campus that includes hiring 100
junior faculty. This University’s ability to recruit and retain talented junior faculty is
2
hampered by the current policy, especially given that most of our peer and aspirational
institutions have a more accommodating parental leave policy.
Second, the issue of recruitment and retention is especially pressing for female faculty.
Female tenure-track faculty face great obstacles in trying to juggle the demands of the
tenure process while having a family (Wilson 2003). It is still the case in U.S. culture that
women primarily carry the task of childrearing. In addition, women have to coordinate
semester-long course commitments, service, and research with end-of-pregnancy
complications, child birth, recovery, and breast feeding.
Research by Mason and Goulden (2002) on the employment patterns at the University of
California – Berkeley suggest that fewer female faculty compared to men are tenured.1
Their research suggests that having children directly affects female faculty’s ability to
achieve tenure. Untenured male faculty with children are more likely to achieve tenure
compared with female faculty who have children before tenure. In a follow-up study
(2004) the researchers found that female faculty are more likely to opt out of having
children than their male counterparts, even though they might wish to have children,
because they do not believe they can manage the competing demands of their family and
their academic obligations. According to their study, 44% of tenured women had children
within 12 years of earning their Ph.D. In comparison 70% of tenured men had children
during that time.
An analysis of the Survey of Doctorate Recipients (as reported by the University of
California Faculty Family Friendly Edge report, 2003)2 indicate “at nearly every stage of
an academic career – from securing a tenure track position to achieving associate and full
professor status – married women (both with and without young children) leak out of the
academic pipeline at a disproportionately high rate” (para. 1). According to the study,
women with children are 29% less likely than women without children to enter a tenuretrack job. Women are 23% less likely than men to become an associate professor, and
they are 25% less likely than men to become a full Professor within a maximum of 16
years.
Third, without a comprehensive parental leave policy, the University fails to cultivate a
supportive environment for fathers and adoptive parents. Although women still carry the
majority of family care giving tasks in the United States, men increasingly are taking on
parental duties at home. Male faculty who desire to be involved in the rearing of
newborns and infants have fewer options than their female counterparts under the current
leave policies. They are granted fewer paid leave days and have no stated option to
extend the tenure decision due to family obligations. Adoptive parents may take only
unpaid leave through the Family and Medical Leave Act and have no stated option to
extend the tenure period.
1
This disproportion between male and female faculty is evident at the University at Albany. The Office of
Institutional Research reports the following: Lecturer: Males 30%, Females 70%. Assistant: Males 55%,
Females 45%. Associate: Males 64%, Females 36%. Full: Males 82%, Females 18%.
2
http://ucfamilyedge.berkeley.edu/leaks.html
3
The work-family balance has become a major topic of discussion across campuses and at
university-oriented think tanks in the United States. Universities such as Princeton and
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have pioneered policies that offer more
flexibility in the tenure process and in family leave policies to ensure that faculty can
have children while working toward tenure. Organizations, such as the American Council
on Education, have investigated alternative and flexible career opportunities in an effort
to retain faculty. They explain the problems facing faculty in this way:
In the promotion and tenure processes, tenure-track and tenured faculty frequently
encounter ambiguous and contradictory criteria, conflicting messages between
institutional rhetoric and the reward structure, murky and secretive review
procedures, and unmitigated stress. Added to this inhospitable combination,
tenure-track and tenured faculty often find difficulty successfully navigating the
promotion and tenure processes while simultaneously striving to fulfill personal
responsibilities. These factors cause many talented academic to choose non- or
marginal academic career paths. (American Council on Education “Creating
Paths,” para 1)
Summary
We of the Ad Hoc Benefits Committee are deeply concerned about these problems. This
report provides the results of our year-long investigation on family leave at the University
at Albany. The first section details the maternity and family leave policies at the
University at Albany and the campus child care facilities. The second section provides a
summary and selected quotes from a faculty survey administered in April of 2005. The
third section provides a summary of leave policies at peer and aspirational-peer
institutions. The last section details this committee’s policy recommendations. Such
policy changes can occur at the University at Albany, and do not need to be negotiated as
part of the SUNY-wide UUP contract with the State of New York.
It is our hope that the University Life Council, the UUP, the University Faculty Senate,
and the University at Albany administration will serve as leaders and entrepreneurs in
identifying and enacting solutions to the problem of balancing work and family
obligations, especially for non-tenured faculty.
POLICIES, BENEFITS, AND SUPPORT FOR FAMILY AT UALBANY
Family Leave Policies
At the University at Albany, policies of family leave are negotiated at the state level
between UUP and the State of New York. The University’s Human Resources website3
explains that:
Pregnancy is treated like any other temporary disability under both the classified and
unclassified rules and policies. Pregnant employees are presumed to be medically
disabled from the performance of job duties for a period commencing approximately
four weeks prior to delivery and continuing for six weeks following delivery. This
3
http://hr.albany.edu/content/HRM90-1.asp
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period may extend based upon documented medical necessity. Should accrued leave
credits prove inadequate to cover the period of disability, then the foregoing
provisions for either leave at half-pay (classified) or extended sick leave
(professional), will apply”
Based on interviews with UUP Representatives, with administrators in the Provost’s
office, Human Resources Management, and in reading the latest UUP contract (20042007), this committee understands that:
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Maternity leave is “sick leave with pay” for no more than four weeks before the
anticipated delivery due date and six weeks after delivery (eight weeks for
Cesarean). Any additional accrued sick leave cannot be expended unless indicated
by a physician and approved by a “chief operating officer.” If the employee does
not have enough accrued sick leave (which may often be the case with junior
faculty), additional sick leave may be requested at reduced salary or without pay.
Male faculty may take 15 days paid family leave to care for a newborn if they
have accrued the sick leave.
Adoptive parents may not use any paid sick leave for parental leave.
Faculty and staff may take up to seven months leave without pay following
childbirth and adoption (this duration includes any sick or disability leave taken
after childbirth). This is “mandatory upon request” for either parent. Additional
leave due to medical disability will be granted at the discretion of the chief
administrative officer. The “seven month” period does not include any time the
infant or adopted child is hospitalized.
The University at Albany, SUNY also abides by the federal Family and Medical
Leave Act of 1993 [See Appendix A]. This mandate requires large employers to
provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family members caring for sick
relatives or caring for new infants, as well as adoptive parents.
Faculty may take up to 15 days of paid family sick leave, which is leave to care
for sick family members, including care for elderly parents, if the faculty member
has accrued enough paid sick leave.
There is a donation program where calendar year or college year faculty who
accrue annual leave credits are eligible to donate such leave credits to other
faculty who are eligible to receive it. This process allows professional faculty to
donate annual leave credits, but there is no provision for academic teaching
faculty to participate in the program, as they do not accrue annual leave.
There is no clear set of guidelines on requesting a change in tenuring status as a
result of child bearing/rearing. At present a request to extend the tenure clock by
one year is presented to the Dean of the associated College, and it is up to his or
her discretion to grant such requests.
In sum a faculty member (male or female) may take up to 7 months unpaid leave for
maternity-related issues. For female faculty, they may take up to ten weeks of paid
leave (12 weeks for Cesarean) if they have accrued enough sick leave. There is no
clear policy on tenure extension requests.
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Child Care on Campus
Three child care centers serve faculty, staff, and students for the University at Albany
community. These centers accept children from eight weeks to five years, and offer
summer-related programs. The wait list for the centers can be quite long, depending on
the time of year. It can take as long as two years to have a child accepted for care,
especially at UKids, which is located on the uptown campus. The wait is longer for
infants than for preschoolers. Ukids, for example, has only eight infant slots. Preference
is given for faculty and students of the University. Siblings also are given preference.
The three centers charge the same rates: $172 infants/$163 toddlers/$153 Preschool-aged
per week. There is no sliding fee scale for lower income parents, but there are
scholarships available for students.
It should be noted that the University’s maternity policy puts female faculty in a
potentially awkward situation of having to return to work after six weeks (if they have
had a normal delivery) when child care facilities will not take children under eight weeks.
FACULTY RESPONSES TO COMMITTEE SURVEY
Introduction
The Ad Hoc Benefits Committee, under the umbrella of the University Life Council and
University Senate, sent out an email query to voting members of the University faculty
on March 29, 2005 regarding the University’s current family leave policy [see Appendix
B]. The survey not only included seven suggested questions to guide faculty members,
but also welcomed general feedback. By the end of a three-week period the committee
received 41 responses from both faculty and staff sharing their “questions, concerns,
feedback, or stories about maternity and family leave” at the University at Albany.
Summary of Responses
In response to the survey a number of faculty members shared their personal experiences
with navigating the policies as beneficiaries. Others spoke to the challenges they faced as
department chairs trying to balance a faculty member’s needs with department staffing
issues. Most agreed that the vagaries of our current policy added to the challenge.
Overwhelmingly, the respondents felt that the University’s current policy needs some
augmentation. What follows is a summary of the faculty responses to the questions as
well as their suggestions. The responses are presented in both a narrative as well as in
graphic form [see Appendix C).
Overall respondents consistently and overwhelmingly emphasized the following five
points:
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The university should grant a semester leave for faculty rather than 10 or 12
weeks given that the university has a 15 week semester.
The university should automatically extend or stop the tenure clock for faculty
who give birth.
Male faculty should also receive paternity leave benefits.
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Adoptive parents should have the option of using accrued sick leave for a parental
leave with pay.
The university’s policies need to allow faculty members to use paid leave to also
care for elderly parents and spouses.
Several respondents raised questions about how sick leave is accrued. The survey
revealed that there is overall confusion about the university’s policies and their relation to
the FMLA. A number of respondents wondered whether the accrual rate puts new and or
untenured faculty at a disadvantage, since they are the ones who are more likely to need
to take advantage of this policy and have had less time to accrue leave. Others mentioned
the gender disparity in use of sick leave amounts.
Although it was not a representative sample, department chairs indicated that they need
more information about the university policy. As it stands faculty felt it was incumbent
upon them to educate their chairs, and/or negotiate with the dean and advocate for their
leave on a case-by-case basis. Repeatedly, respondents mentioned the disparity between
the 10-week leave and the 15-week semester. In some instances faculty were called upon
to recruit their own teaching replacement. Many untenured faculty members felt
uncomfortable with being forceful about advocating for themselves. Several comments
made it clear that untenured faculty are concerned about how those requesting maternity
leave are perceived in terms of their professional commitment. Those who have given
birth express that they are also concerned about bridging the time missed at work and
maintaining a consistent flow of professional activity.
In addition to their answers to the suggested questions, a number of respondents
mentioned other areas that need examination. More than a few felt that out of fairness
the university should recognize that adoptive parents have many of the same needs and
concerns as those who give birth. Others mentioned that the committee should also
consider additional areas of concern such as bereavement leave, the needs of single
faculty without children, the needs of staff members as well as the creation of a system of
rewards for those who “fill in” for faculty taking advantage of leave.
Select Quotes
What follows are some select quotes made in response to the list of suggested questions
that may provide topics for continued research and discussion by the committee.
1. Is the current policy adequate?
“The main issue I would press is for female faculty to have a full paid leave
regardless of the amount of sick leave they have accrued.”
“No, the policy is not adequate. Maternity leave for women should be available for
up to 3 months, and individuals should be able to use sick time for the entire
maternity leave if they have accrued it. A maximum of 6 weeks sick time
is completely inadequate, as vacation time must be used after that and
most people will be forced on leave without pay for all or part of the
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time.”
2. Should the policy be expanded to include male faculty?
“There should be some provision for paternity leave, two weeks at minimum.”
“A contemporary policy would also acknowledge that fact that both biological
and adoptive fathers are active parents and should have "maternity" leave
available to them. Perhaps "family leave" would suffice!”
“I would recommend making "maternity leave" gender neutral. Perhaps the new
term could be "parental leave". Consider giving equal benefits to new
parents of both genders.”
3. Is the time period for maternity leave adequate?
“The current time period for maternity leave does not make much sense.
Faculty usually teach courses that last one semester. Giving maternity
leaves that last 2 1/2 months means that the person on leave cannot teach
regular semester courses. So, why not give one semester maternity leaves?”
“10 weeks?!?! are you kidding me? I like the idea of 4 weeks off before
you're due, but only 6 weeks after?! What about if the mom has a C-section?
I think you're barely allowed to drive at that point. Let alone the general
level of sleep deprivation for any new parents, especially at that point.”
4. Should the University detail a policy on extending the tenure clock?
“Simply put, having a child is disruptive to life and to research. This disruption goes
far beyond the actual 10 weeks or so of maternity leave. Real sleep deprivation will
continue in most cases for at least 5 months and in many cases for over a year, until
the child sleeps through the night consistently. The physiological effects of this are
real. Stopping the tenure clock seems to be a relatively simple and straightforward
way for the University to support professors who have babies. The offer to do so
should be automatic for new parents, both male and female. Those parents will be
grateful and the University will earn their respect and admiration—and perhaps even
sleep-deprived devotion.”
“Most of this is governed by collective bargaining and state law.
It is very important that the time clock for tenure be adjusted to take into
account pregnancy, delivery and post-natal leaves. Also, if paternity
leaves are granted for an extensive period of time because of health reasons
for the mother or child, then the time clock for tenure should be adjusted.”
5. Should the policy be larger in scope to include faculty caring for, for example, elderly
parents?
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“Care for elderly parents also merits consideration for leave. It is a fact
of life since people live longer and need assistance from their grown
children.”
“I would like to see more time allowed for an immediate family illness,
spouse, parent, child. If someone has enough sick time available they
should be allowed to use it to care for an acutely ill spouse etc. . . . If
a spouse for example is diagnosed with cancer, they may need nearly 24 hour
care towards the end for more than 15 days. This would allow you to keep
them at home rather than in the hospital or hospice if that is your choice.
It happened to a friend of mine, and her school district allowed her to use
her sick time to stay home and care for her husband for several months until
he passed away (She had over 200 days of sick time built up over the years).
It made things a lot easier for her and she was able to be there for him.”
6. What obstacles do faculty experience when they have a maternity leave request?
“I have not made such a request, but I expect that there would be problems if I did.
Our department is so small that my absence would be a major handicap to the
department and might prevent the offering of required courses. We have a similar
problem presently due to unexpected retirement of a faculty member (same effect as
someone taking leave), but there has been no additional resources from the College or
University to cover this shortfall. I would expect that if I were to request leave in the
current climate, it would not be encouraged.”
“Even if a faculty uses her sick leaves for maternity, it is a
10-week period, and our system goes by semester. Does she come back to
teaching in the middle of the semester? When my Chair went to talk to
the Dean, he was told and I was told to hire someone to teach the first
month of the course, and then I take it over, which I think is very
difficult for various reasons. Quarter course is another suggestion,
but I think quarter courses do not necessarily mean less work. It is
the same amount of work, if not more, but in a much shorter period, thus it is in fact
more difficult to teaching for a new mother.”
“The minimum leave period after birth should be extended to 8 weeks. Most infants
are not ready to attend daycare until this age. Under the current policy, what are the
parents supposed to do with the baby during the 6-8 week period after birth?”
“For teaching faculty one of the main obstacles must be how to manage
courses. What if a female professor were to give birth at the end of the
fall semester? That would make her eligible for leave during the last 4
weeks of that semester and the first few weeks of the next. How does that
work in terms of course coverage? Another obstacle relates to preparation.
Using the same scenario, and assuming that professor would resume teaching
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duties for the Spring semester, that professor would have to do all course
preparation work either well in advance, which is possible, but, if not
possible, would have to manage that while also healing and taking care of
the newborn, in which case her leave would not really be a leave. In fact,
I wonder whether for teaching faculty maternity leave is ever really a
leave.”
“In my own experience and in the experience of others I have known here, the
pregnant instructor is asked to find her own coverage for her classes while she will be
on maternity leave. This is problematic on a number of levels. First, it assumes a
network of local specialists that will be available. Second, it assumes that the
pregnant woman is to act as something of a subcontractor, finding someone to take
over part of her class. Third, it assumes that the maternity leave can be pinned down.
This is, of course, the most problematic part. With a more generous maternity leave,
the professor might say, my due date is Nov. 1, therefore, I will ask for coverage
starting Oct. 1, in accordance with the 4 weeks maternity leave pre-due date allowed.
The coverage would then go to mid- to late-December if the baby were born on the
actual due date (6 weeks for vaginal delivery, 8 for caesarean). What, if the baby is
early or late? How is coverage to coincide with reality? In my own experience this
divergence of due date and delivery date made for a very unpleasant first maternity
experience at the University at Albany.”
7. What obstacles do department chairs face with a request for maternity leave?
“Internationally, the U.S. has one of the worst family leave policies. The Family and
Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides for only a short amount of time off—about 12
weeks—and all of that time is unpaid. One result is that many people cannot make
use of it. Indeed, most developed countries provide paid family/maternity leave and
considerably more time off than does our federal policy.”
“The University at Albany has tried to mitigate some of the problems with the FMLA
by offering six weeks of paid leave. However, in a system that is based on 14-week
semesters, six weeks is both an insufficient and an awkward amount of time. As a
result, helpful department chairs usually creatively “jerry-rig” a leave policy.
Sometimes they provide a faculty member, whose baby was born mid-semester, with
alternative activities to classroom teaching; other times, for babies born near the end
of a semester, graduate assistants and colleagues take over the last weeks of teaching
for the semester. However, there is no formal policy, or even a systematized list of
options, leaving new parents with no guidelines as to what they might ask for and
chairs no guidelines as to how they might accommodate the new parents. Minimally,
creating a list of current solutions would be very helpful. Maximally, a longer period
of paid leave seems essential.”
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POLICIES OF PEER AND ASPIRATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Universities around the country are obligated by federal law to give employees 12 weeks
unpaid leave due to childbirth or adoption. Universities may supplement additional
family leave benefits for their faculty. Below is a summary of research of family and
maternity leave policies at the University at Albany’s peer and aspiration institutions [See
Appendix D for list of Peer and Aspiration Institutions].
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The University of Delaware,4 a peer institution, extends the family federal leave
through an academic semester.
One peer institution, Virginia Tech,5 follows the federal family leave act of
unpaid leave, and also gives adoptive parents 10 paid leave days, if they have
accrued paid sick leave.
Most of our peer and our aspiration institutions allow faculty and staff to use
accrued sick leave during their leave to care for a new child. Because the federal
leave covers both men and women who are coping with a new birth or an adopted
or foster child, the policies allow birth mothers and fathers, as well as adoptive or
foster parents, to take up to 12 weeks unpaid or substitute their unpaid time with
paid sick leave.
Of our aspiration institutions, Indiana University has the most extensive policy on
family leave.6 Faculty may take up to 15 weeks or through the end of the semester
(whichever comes first) for maternity leave (including adoption) for both male
and female faculty. The leave is 2/3 pay. Leave requests are determined by a
panel of faculty and administrators. The salaries and benefits not paid out are used
to hire adjuncts to fill in for the faculty member.
None of the human resources websites documented changes in tenure status for female
faculty who have given birth. News coverage of university policies on family and
maternity leave indicate that some universities, such as Princeton University,7
automatically extend the tenure appointment by one year for female faculty who have
given birth (Cliatt 2005).
Other universities, such as Ohio State University,8 now allow tenure-track female faculty
who have children to work part time on the tenure track. This extends the time to tenure
by a few years, and allows female faculty the flexibility to both raise children and have
research and teaching careers.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology9 has one of the most progressive policies
around family leave. Male and female faculty may take a semester of full paid leave from
teaching and service obligations after childbirth or adoption.
4
http://www.udel.edu/ExecVP/polprod/4-24.html
http://www.hr.vt.edu/leave/manual/
6
http://www.indiana.edu/~ufc/docs/policies/familyleave.htm
7
http://web.princeton.edu/sites/dof/publs/rpfac94/fchap4.htm#chap4c
8
http://oaa.osu.edu/handbook/ii_reducefte.html
9
http://web.mit.edu/facfamily/policies/1parentalSupport.html
5
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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY CHANGE
Solutions to problems of balancing work and family have been identified by universities
and by non-profit organizations. One such organization, the American Council for
Education produced a report “An Agenda for Excellence: Creating Flexibility in TenureTrack Faculty Careers” (2005) that identifies several solutions. The University at Albany
was one of the institutions involved in the report. It urges presidents and chancellors to
develop more flexible career paths to retain faculty by giving junior faculty ten years
rather than six to earn tenure, allow part time work options, and create opportunities for
re-entering academia after taking time away from academia for personal and familyrelated matters.
In light of the call by the American Council for Education and the research this
committee has conducted, we recommended the following policy changes to the current
maternity leave policy at the University at Albany, SUNY:
1. We feel strongly that the University should have a “parental” leave policy, rather
than a “maternity” leave policy. Constructing maternity as a “disability” and tying
all leave benefits to it restricts who is eligible for such a leave and constructs child
rearing as a disability rather than an essential part of a healthy, functioning
society. Moreover, it fails to recognize that giving birth is only one element of the
parental process. Building bonds between parent and child are critical the first
months of an infant’s life. In constructing the policy as “parental” leave, both
male faculty and adoptive parents become eligible for paid leave time to bond
with and nurture their new children.
2. This committee has concluded that the leave time for teaching faculty ideally
should extend for an entire semester. This would solve the major obstacles
expecting parents face as highlighted in the feedback from faculty of trying to
cover courses for parts of the semester. Faculty, under this policy, would be
allowed to take the leave at any point within three months of birth. Professional
staff without teaching obligations who have or adopt a child should be allowed to
use their accrued sick leave to pay for a leave of absence up to 12 weeks, similar
to our peer and aspirational peer institutions policies on using sick leave for a paid
family leave.
3. In order to ensure that teaching faculty who are expecting parents can take the
semester and not leave departments scrambling to replace the instructor—
especially small departments and those with few resources—the University
should establish a specific fund for department chairs to use for the purpose of
hiring adjunct faculty. Indiana University’s policy could serve as a model [See
Appendix E for Indiana University’s policy].
4. In following the Princeton University example, an automatic one year extension
to the tenure decision should be granted for faculty who have a new child (either
through birth or adoption).
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UUP representatives have indicated to this committee that such changes can occur on this
campus and do not need to be negotiated as part of the state-wide contract between UUP
and the State of New York.
In addition to these four recommendations, this committee has identified a significant
need for better information dissemination concerning leave benefits for faculty:
1. Increase the information about leave options and tenure extension requests on the
Human Resources website. This should include a check list of the people who
need to be consulted in the approval process for paid leave, unpaid leave, and
tenure extension requests, who is eligible for such leaves and requests, and the
recommended timeline for the request process. Include this information in
orientation packets for incoming faculty. Hold workshops with faculty,
department chairs, and college deans to discuss policies and to promote a climate
that is supportive to faculty who choose to have children (Sullivan, Hollenshead,
and Smith 2004).
2. Provide detailed instructions on the procedures for parental leave and tenure
extension requests to current chairs. Department chairs are the most critical link in
the chain of informing faculty and enforcing family leave policies (Ward and
Wolf-Wendel 2004).
Finally, other universities are investigating additional ways to ensure hiring and retention
of faculty. Two that the University should consider are:
1. Set aside a fund to provide a guaranteed paid leave for single parent faculty when
leave is contingent on having accrued adequate sick leave (See Williams 2005 for
more information).
2. Implement an optional part-time tenure track. Faculty who desire a tenure-track
job but who wish to work less than full time may be granted contracts at 50% time
(with full benefits) and an extended time to tenure decision (see Williams 2004
for background on part-time tenure track options).
Policy change can be difficult to initiate. In our investigations we have encountered both
faculty and administrators who have suggested that changing the University at Albany’s
current maternity leave policies will limit the ability to deal creatively with the unique
situations faculty face around parenting. Based on our research and on the reports
provided by faculty at the University, the problem with the current set of policies is that
they lead to disparity in how individual faculty are accommodated. Some faculty are
given much greater accommodations than other faculty. This creates an unfair and
uneven set of accommodations for tenure-track faculty seeking to balance work and
family.
Financial implications of policy changes can deter administrators from making changes
as well (Ward and Wolf-Wendel, 2004). We have proposed both resource-neutral as well
as resource-impinged solutions. In our view, the costs of, for example, setting aside a
small fund to hire adjunct faculty for the semester a tenure-track faculty member goes on
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parental leave, is small compared with the cost of failing to retain talented faculty who
will provide the University with excellence in teaching, in research, and in service if
provided the right environment.
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APPENDIX A: FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA; Public Law 103-3) is a federal law
enacted in February 5, 1993. This law requires employers of 50 or more employees to
grant their employees up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period
for one or more of the following reasons:
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
The birth and care of the newborn child of the employee;
Placement with the employee of a son or daughter for adoption or foster care;
Care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious
health condition; or
Medical leave when the employee is unable to work because of a serious
health condition.
An employee is eligible if he or she:



Has been employed by the employer for at least 12 months; and
Has worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12-month period immediately
preceding the commencement of leave; and
Is employed at a worksite where 50 or more employees are employed within
75 miles of the worksite.
Notes:
1) This is unpaid leave, but offers job protection. Accrued paid leave (e.g. sick-time or
vacation-time) can be substituted.
2) Leave can be taken on an intermittent basis, or the employee may work part-time.
3) An employee on FMLA leave is entitled to have health benefits maintained as if
employee had continued to work.
4) The employee has the right to return to the same or equivalent position.
5) The employer has the right to 30 days advance notice from the employee.
6) The employer may require an employee to submit certification from a health care
provider to substantiate the leave, and/or to establish the employee’s fitness to return to
work.
7) Leave taken due to pregnancy complications, pregnancy disability, or maternity leave
can be counted as part of the 12-week FMLA leave entitlement.
8) An immediate family member does not include in-laws, or children over the age of 18
unless they are “incapable of self-care”.
9) FMLA permits employees to take leave in order to receive continuing treatment by a
health care provider (e.g., physical therapy).
10) Employers may have established policies regarding outside employment while on
paid or unpaid leave that may be applied to employees on FMLA leave.
15
APPENDIX B: FACULTY SURVEY INVITATION
Dear Colleagues:
Your input is needed on family and maternity leave at the University at
Albany.
THE CURRENT POLICY:
The University's maternity policy grants female faculty leave from all
duties for four weeks before childbirth and six weeks after childbirth. This
leave may be a paid leave if the faculty member has ten weeks of sick leave
banked. If the faculty member has been at the University less than 3 years,
she will likely not be able to take the entire leave paid. The University
has no specific guidelines for extending the tenure clock for maternity. The
leave policy currently only applies to female faculty.
The University's family leave policy stipulates that with the approval from
the College President, an employee may take up to 15 days of paid sick leave
to care for an ill family member (if the sick leave time has accrued).
For more information see the UUP contract on the World Wide Web at
http://www.uupinfo.org/contract/text.html#art23.
YOUR INPUT IS NEEDED:
The Ad Hoc Benefits Committee, under the umbrella of the University Life
Council, University Senate, invites feedback from faculty about the current
policy. We have been tasked with investigating the University's policy and
identifying areas where the policy needs improvement and possible expansion.
Some of the questions under consideration include:
* Is the current policy adequate?
* Should the policy be expanded to include male faculty?
* Is the time period for maternity leave adequate?
* What obstacles do faculty experience when they have a maternity leave
request?
* What obstacles do department chairs face with a request for maternity
leave?
* Should the University detail a policy on extending the tenure clock?
* Should the policy be larger in scope to include faculty caring for, for
example, elderly parents?
Please email us your questions, concerns, feedback, or stories about
maternity and family leave.
Send your comments by April 15th to: famleave@albany.edu
Sincerely,
The Ad Hoc Benefits Committee: Jennifer Stromer-Galley, Department of
Communication, Lisa Thompson, Department of English, and Ben Shaw, School of
Public Health
0
Should adoptive parents be
extended the same courtesy?
Should the policy be larger in scope
to include faculty caring for, for
example, elderly parents?
Should the University detail a
policy on extending the tenure
clock?
Is the time period for maternity
leave adequate?
Should the policy be expanded to
include male faculty?
Is the current policy adequate?
Number of Responses
16
APPENDIX C: NUMBER OF FACULTY RESPONSES TO SURVEY
QUESTIONS
Number of Faculty/Staff Responses to Questions Concerning Family Leave
35
30
25
20
15
10
Yes
No
Maybe
No answer
5
17
APPENDIX D: PEER AND ASPIRATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Peer Institutions – Institutions that the University at Albany ranks as “peer.”
SUNY Binghamton
SUNY Buffalo
SUNY Stony Brook
UC-Santa Barbara
UC – Santa Cruz
U Connecticut
U Delaware
U Mass – Amherst
U Oregon
U Rhode Island
U South Carolina – Columbia
Virginia Tech
Washington State U
Aspirational Peers – Institutions with which the University at Albany aims to rank.
Arizona State U
Florida State U
Indiana U – Bloomington
Rutgers U – New Brunswick
UC – Irvine
UC – San Diego
U Maryland – College Park
U North Carolina – Chapel Hill
U Texas – Austin
U Virginia
18
APPENDIX E: INDIANA UNIVERSITY’S FAMILY LEAVE POLICY
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Partially-Paid Family Leave Policy
By Action of the University Faculty Council: April 8, 1997; April 27, 2004
Amended and Approved by the Board of Trustees: May 8, 1998, June 22, 2001; May
7, 2004; May 6, 2005
WHEREAS, the University Faculty Council has requested that a partially-paid family
leave policy be established for full-time academic appointees, including full-time clinical
faculty members and full-time librarians,
BE IT RESOLVED, that
After one year of service and with a frequency not to exceed once every three years, a
full-time academic appointee is eligible for a partially-paid leave:
1. For the birth or adoption of a child by the academic appointee or the academic
appointee's spouse, which leave must be concluded within twelve (12) months of the
birth of the child or within twelve (12) months of the date on which the child is placed for
adoption with the academic appointee.
2. For the serious health condition of the academic appointee's spouse, child, or parent,
when the academic appointee is the primary or co-primary caretaker.
The partially-paid leave shall be for a period not to exceed fifteen (15) weeks or the end
of the semester, whichever occurs first.
During the partially-paid leave, the academic appointee shall be paid an amount not to
exceed two-thirds of the appointee's salary. Contributions to the appointee's retirement
plan during this period of leave shall be based on the reduced salary actually paid.
During the period of leave, the academic appointee, other than a librarian or a clinical
faculty member, is relieved from teaching duties while continuing research, creative work
and service activities. Upon return to regular duties, the academic appointee shall not be
required to assume a heavier teaching load than normal. The continuing duties of a
librarian or of a clinical faculty member during the period of leave shall be negotiated by
the academic appointee and the dean of the academic appointee's school or designee of
the dean, and said continuing duties shall approximate the proportion of salary received
during the leave. Upon return from leave, a librarian or clinical faculty member shall not
19
be required to assume more duties than usual.
Each campus chancellor shall appoint a panel of faculty and administrators to approve
leaves requested pursuant to the terms of this policy and to ensure that the leaves are in
compliance with this policy.
The portion of salaries and benefits that are not paid to the academic appointees who
receive leave pursuant to this policy shall create a funding pool to hire temporary
replacements as necessary. The campus shall determine whether the funding pool is
campus-wide or in some cases school-wide.
Leave taken pursuant to this policy shall count as all or part of the federal Family and
Medical Leave Act requirements.
This policy is effective until June 30, 2006. At that time it will be reviewed and may be
renewed by the affirmative action of the Board of Trustees upon the recommendation of
the faculty and administrators of the University.
20
WORKS CITED
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http://www.acenet.edu/bookstore/pdf/2005_tenure_flex_summary.pdf
American Council on Education. (nd). Creating options: Models for flexible
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Cliatt, Cass. (2005, August 17). Tenure policy aims to make Princeton more
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