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The Application for Sabbatical Leave and the Sabbatical Leave Report are located on the Faculty Affairs website. Faculty are encouraged to review this guidance document to ensure that they submit a sufficiently specific and detailed application.

After six years of service to the University on a regular appointment, a tenured member of the faculty shall be eligible to apply for a sabbatical assignment in the seventh year. It is expected that the faculty member will use the sabbatical assignment in a manner that will enhance their scholarly and/or teaching competence and potential for service to the University in addition to advancing department or program goals. A sabbatical is a privilege granted by the University for the advancement of the University, subject to the availability of resources. A sabbatical assignment is an important tool in developing academic scholarship and is a time for concentrated professional development. Visit the CU System website for the.

Sabbatical applications (including for 2025-26 academic year and Fall 2025 semester) are due to the CEAS HR team (submit via Jira) by December 2, 2024. Sabbatical applications (including for calendar year and Spring 2026 semester) are due to the CEAS HR team (submit via Jira) by January 15, 2025. Please email Jessica Rosso with questions.

Late applications may be considered but are not guaranteed to be approved. Sabbaticals are reviewed and approved by the CU Board of Regents, so applications must meet campus and university expectations for content.

Specific rules and procedures regarding the grant of sabbaticals

CU System  provides procedures for the approval of sabbatical assignments, as required by  Administrators responsible for the award of sabbaticals shall be accountable for ensuring compliance with the Regent Policy on sabbaticals as well as this administrative policy statement.

Key points from the policy and procedures in APS 1024 include:

• Calculating Years of Service. A tenured faculty member shall become eligible after six years (12 semesters) of service to the University (i.e., in the seventh year). Faculty must be tenured before taking a sabbatical but time served prior to receipt of tenure counts toward the 12 required semesters of service. In order to be eligible for a subsequent sabbatical, a faculty member must serve for six more years (12 semesters) after return from the previous sabbatical. In AY 2021-2022, this policy changed and CEAS began to count time on sabbatical as service for a subsequent sabbatical. Effective AY 2021-2022, time spent on sabbatical counts towards these 12 semesters. Sabbaticals taken prior to AY 2021-2022 did not count as service toward the next sabbatical.
• Modification of Annual Merit Evaluation Formula. For purposes of annual merit evaluation, the efforts and accomplishments of a faculty member on sabbatical or faculty fellowship primarily related to research for one semester in a calendar year is normally assigned weightings of 10% teaching, 80% creative/scholarly work (research) and 10% leadership and service for that semester, or 25% teaching, 60% creative/scholarly work (research), and 15% leadership and service for the AY when combined with a standard semester. Annual merit evaluations for faculty on full-year sabbaticals would normally be 10% teaching, 80% creative/scholarly work (research), and 10% leadership and service for the full academic year.
• Remuneration Allowed. Remuneration for the sabbatical assignment will be full salary for one semester or half salary for two semesters. If a faculty member chooses a one-semester sabbatical assignment with full pay, they may not also receive any additional salary from any other source. If, however, the individual chooses to take a two-semester assignment at half salary, they may accept a part-time salary or fellowship, provided that the total stipend for this period does not exceed the AY base salary. (The one-sixth rule may be assumed to apply here as it does to regular employment.) It is expected that faculty members applying for sabbatical assignments will also apply for external funding to the extent that it is available. In the case that the faculty member obtains external funding, University support will be reduced so that the faculty member's total salary is within the guidelines stated above. (Also see the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Sabbatical Supplement Program).
• Multiple Sabbaticals within a Department. If two or more members of a department simultaneously become eligible for sabbatical assignments and it becomes necessary to limit the number of sabbaticals in the department, the order of succession shall be determined by agreement within the department. Priority will be based on the quality of the sabbatical plan, its immediate relevance to departmental goals, and the length of time since the faculty member's last sabbatical. The Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs have the authority to resolve special problems of eligibility.
• Adjustments to Sabbatical Clock. Leaves without pay and other leaves from campus shall pause the sabbatical clock to the nearest full semester. Faculty who accept a Faculty Fellowship shall have their sabbatical clocks reset to zero upon returning to regular duties following the sabbatical.

Questions concerning the sabbatical or faculty fellowship policies should be addressed to the department chair or dean, as appropriate.