Sabbaticals to be limited

UT professors looking to go on sabbatical will have a harder time getting their leaves approved during the economic downturn.

Rosemary Haggett, main campus provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, asked the deans of colleges earlier this academic year to crack down on the number of sabbatical requests that are approved.

A sabbatical, or paid academic leave, is an opportunity for university professors to focus on performing research in their fields in an effort to heighten their own knowledge of a subject.

For many tenured professors, sabbaticals may be an important part of their work and seen as a break from the university and an opportunity to conduct their own research and gain recognition for the university.

Carter Wilson, a professor of political science, recently took a one semester sabbatical.

"The sabbatical, for me, was a chance to jumpstart my research and get back to research," Wilson said. "I really enjoy doing research, and I always tie the research that I do into my classes."

Haggett said due to the economic strain on the university, there will be fewer resources for hiring faculty, leading to fewer sabbaticals and more work for the tenured faculty.

"I knew this was going to create some strain on the departments," Haggett said. "If a faculty member goes on sabbatical, that's one less person to do the work of the department that needs to be done."

Haggett said she does not intend to stop sabbaticals altogether, just lessen the number of professors away on sabbatical.

"What we've asked is for [the deans] to examine their workloads and can use that as a criterion on who he or she puts forward or is recommending," Haggett said. "There will still be ones that are still recommended, and there will still be ones that I recommend to the president to recommend to the board."

Although Haggett said she believes decreasing sabbaticals will help the university save money and faculty, Wilson said a decrease in sabbaticals would hinder the university's future growth and reputation.

 "[If UT] took away sabbaticals, they would be basically destroying what a university is," Wilson said. "A major research-active university encourages and supports and provides resources for faculty members to do research. The thing that gives a university its recognition and its status is the research conducted by the faculty."

Wilson said in addition to building a university's reputation, sabbaticals have an effect on the quality of education received by students at UT.

"There's a connection between doing high-quality research and doing high-quality teaching," he said. "It enhances the quality of the educational process."

Haggett said a decrease in sabbaticals shouldn't obstruct professors' abilities to bring new research and information to their students because they should be doing that all the time, not just after returning from a sabbatical.

Skaidrite Stelzer, an assistant professor of English, returned from a sabbatical last spring when she took time to compile a book of poetry. Since professors only go on sabbaticals every seven years, Stelzer said she believes they are a reasonable request of professors.

"When we return to the classroom, we have an added perspective," Stelzer said.  "We are refreshed, and we're reinvigorated with teaching. We can share any new insights we've learned and pass that on to our students."

Stelzer said she doesn't know how bad the economy really is or what the effects are on a university.

"Unless it's really bad, that would be an important aspect not to cut back on," she said.

Kathleen Salyers, an associate professor of counselor education and school psychology, said she is waiting for approval of her sabbatical request. She has been at UT for eight years and became a tenured professor last year.

"Right now [for me] to be able to take sabbatical is really vital," Salyers said. "I have some research interest that I really want to pursue, but I need this time to really be able to get organized, to document research and to really be able to get my research together that I can then pursue for the next couple of years."

Salyers said she is trying to go on sabbatical to enhance the learning in her classroom as well as do additional research.

"[For my sabbatical,] I have a couple classes that I teach that I am going to update and develop," Salyers said. "We've had some changes in our national accreditation that includes the inclusion of substance abuse counseling in our core courses."

If the university declines Salyers' application to take a semester for research, she said she will not be able to achieve her research because of the traveling required.

Wilson said he thinks UT has been cutting back on resources and funding for faculty research, and he said he believes UT needs to be more active in supporting the research done by faculty members.

"On one hand, the university talks about raising the research status of the university and, in a sense, says that it values research," Wilson said. "But then, on the other hand, the university has been taking away resources and incentives for research and making it more difficult for faculty members to go out on sabbatical. It's just another way of reducing the resources and incentives for faculty members to do research."

Despite the concerns of some professors that the university doesn't value faculty research, Haggett said the university will continue to support sabbaticals.

"I'm glad to know that the university has [sabbaticals] and we continue to support them," Haggett said. "It is important for our faculty to continue in their areas of professional development. We want our faculty to be maximally successful in their professions."