Scholarly Leave of Absence

  Policy | Application

Policy 

Tenure-track faculty

Unless specified otherwise in the hiring contract, conditional on the renewal of their initial contract, tenure-track faculty are eligible for a full year of leave with full salary and benefits to occur after six semesters in residence (i.e., in the fourth year of their initial four-year contract). 

Tenured faculty

Tenured faculty have the following options for obtaining scholarly leaves:

• Regularly scheduled leaves: Tenured faculty can apply for one semester of paid leave or a full year of leave at half-pay after 8 semesters of teaching, research, and service since the conclusion of their last leave.
• Off-cycle requests:   A tenured faculty member may request a leave prior to the next regularly scheduled leave provided that the following conditions are satisfied:
  • The faculty member must apply for an external fellowship or award (“award”).
  • The leave must be discussed and approved by the chair or director and the Dean’s Office prior to applying for the award.
  • The leave is contingent upon winning the award.
  • The award must support a significant fraction of the faculty member’s salary (e.g., 50% of half-year salary):
    • The college will typically top off the external funding to provide full salary and benefits for the term of the leave. 
    • Federally funded grants are not eligible for topping up.
  • The award must be especially prestigious, significantly enhancing the scholarly visibility of the faculty member, the department, and the university.
  • The request for an off-cycle leave is exceptional, likely occurring only a few times during a faculty member’s career at Vanderbilt.
  • Off-cycle leaves do not affect the calendar of regularly scheduled leaves; however, in all cases, a faculty member must return to full-time research and teaching for a period of time at least as long as the most recent leave.  

Application

The annual call for leave applications is circulated in late fall.