Sabbatical Leave


College Instructions for the Fall 2023 Application Process (for Sabbatical Leaves in the 2024–25 Academic Year)

posted June 13, 2023, by Maria E. Orive, Associate Dean

The primary, authoritative instructions for applying for sabbatical leaves are posted on KU’s central Faculty Affairs website. That website also provides all of the forms for the application process. There are no additional forms specific to College of Liberal Arts & Sciences applications for sabbatical leaves, but the following instructions are specific to the College:

  1. Each department chair should, in the next several weeks, notify their faculty members of their departmental deadline for the submission of sabbatical applications. In setting the departmental deadline, the department chair should consider the following:
    • The September 5 deadline (specified below) for the submission of sabbatical applications, with departmental endorsements, to the College Dean’s Office
    • The fact that the departmental endorsement requires written evaluations of several components of the faculty member’s application
    • The fact that applications from the same department must be ranked relative to each other
    • The time needed to implement the department’s internal process for determining that ranking
    • Any matters of coordinating with other units, in the case of faculty members with joint appointments (see further instructions below)
  2. The faculty member should complete the required files (as specified in the instructions posted at the Faculty Affairs website mentioned above) and submit them to the faculty member’s department in accordance with the department’s procedure for evaluating sabbatical-leave applications.
    • Special instructions for faculty members with appointments in multiple departments or programs within the College:
      • The faculty member should submit the required files to the chair or director of each unit within the College in which the faculty member has an appointment.
      • A separate, independent initial-level evaluation should be completed by each unit and submitted directly to the College Dean's Office.
      • For faculty members with joint appointments in units outside of the College, the other unit will submit required files to Faculty Affairs via the appropriate intermediate review (e.g. Office of Research, etc.) through their independent unit structure.
    • Special instructions for department chairs:
      • If you are a department chair and departmental initial-level review of your application would entail either self-evaluation or some other conflict of interest, please contact the associate dean who is assigned to your department to determine a plan for the initial-level review of your application. Please contact him or her by Tuesday, August 1, to allow time for a plan to be put in place.
  3. After departmental evaluation of the application, the department chair or other department officer should complete the initial-level evaluation form posted at the Faculty Affairs website mentioned above.
  4. The department chair should email all of the completed files (both the faculty member files and the initial-level endorsement file(s)) to classab@ku.edu by 12 noon on Tuesday, September 5, 2023.
  5. Faculty members are welcome to write to that same email address to request confirmation of the submission and completeness of their applications. Faculty members exercising this option should allow three business days for a response to be provided.
  6. Applications will be evaluated by the Committee on Sabbatical Leaves.

Questions may be directed to: