Faculty Leaves (Scholarship and Creative Work)

The university provides full-time members of the faculty with various kinds of leave for research and other academic purposes. General terms for Fellowship Leaves (sabbatical) and Scholar Incentive Awards may be found in Article 25 of the PSC-CUNY Contract and Code of Practice Regarding Instructional Staff Academic Leaves (PDF) from CUNY Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM).

Fellowship Leave

Fellowship Leaves are available for research (including study and related travel), improvement of teaching, and creative work in literature and the arts.

The full-pay, one-semester Fellowship Leave is competitive, and only one such leave is awarded per year. Applicants who are not chosen for the full-pay leave will be given the opportunity to re-submit their application to be considered for the standard 80% leave.

• Application for Fellowship Leave (PDF)
  • This form is specific for leaves beginning in the fall 2025 or spring 2026 semesters.
  • Applicants should also submit their current CV via Dropbox.
• Cover Sheet for Academic Leaves of Absence (PDF)
• Additional Compensation During Fellowship Leave (PDF)
• Post-Leave Report template (DOCX)

Deadlines

• All applications for Fellowship Leaves beginning in the fall 2025 or spring 2026 semester must be submitted to the department chair no later than October 1, 2024. This includes both applications for the 80% leave and the full-pay leave.
• Applications approved by the department appointments committee must be submitted, along with the cover sheet, to Human Resource Services (care of Peggy Sainté at psainte@brooklyn.cuny.edu) no later than October 15, 2024. Applications received in HRS after October 15, 2024 will not be accepted.

Scholar Incentive Awards

Scholar Incentive Awards are intended to promote bona fide, documented scholarly work, including creative work in the arts.

• Application for Scholar Incentive Award (PDF)
• Cover Sheet for Academic Leaves of Absence (PDF)
• Post-Scholar Incentive Award Leave Report template (PDF*) (DOCX) *This is an Adobe Dynamic xml Form, must “Save As” before using.

Deadlines

Application for Scholar Incentive Awards must be submitted in a timely manner that allows for the required department, college, and university review and approvals. The general deadlines are the following:

• For leaves beginning in the spring 2025 semester, applications should be submitted to the department chair for departmental review no later than November 1, 2024.
• For leave beginning in the fall 2025 semester, applications should be submitted to the department chair for departmental review no later than March 1, 2025.

Special Leave of Absence without Pay

Special leaves of absence without pay may be requested for study, writing, research, a creative project, or public service of reasonable duration.

• Application Process Detail (PDF)

Academic Leave Date Changes and Cancellations

While considered a significant exception, changing the dates (semesters) of your academic leave is permissible, but all requests are subject to review and approval and the following restrictions:

1. The academic leave must begin in the same academic year as your original application. If you wish to delay the start of the leave until a later academic year, you must request a full cancellation of your leave and submit a new application/reapply.
2. Generally, split leaves (fall+fall, spring+spring, fall+spring) will not be approved to extend into a third academic year. For example, if you were originally granted a Spring 2001 and Spring 2002 Fellowship Leave, a request to change the second half of your leave to Fall 2002 would not be approved.

Change Request Deadlines

Fall Semester: March 30
Spring Semester: October 30

• Academic Leave Date Changes and Cancellations (PDF)