The UW System coordinates these programs of particular interest to faculty members.

State Statutes govern the sabbatical program.  A sabbatical is intended to enhance "teaching, course, and curriculum development" and is open to any regular faculty member who has completed six or more years of full-time service (excluding leaves of absence, regardless of funding source) at the University of Wisconsin and has not taken a sabbatical in the UW System during those six years. Preference is given to those making significant contributions to teaching and those who have not had a leave of absence regardless of funding source during the prior four years. Sabbatical leave for one semester will be compensated at one hundred percent of the sabbiticant's salary and no replacement staffing will be granted. Sabbatical leave for one academic year will be compensated at sixty-five percent of the sabbaticant's salary.  In any given year, up to one-seventh of the faculty in a department may be proposed for sabbaticals, if they are eligible (see note below). The program is entirely self-funded, which means that no funds are added by the campus to the College budget for replacement staffing.  

As a general rule, the University does not allow for reimbursement of living expenses such as lodging and meals while on sabbatical. However, some research awards (Federal, Vilas, or Grad school awards) may allow for reimbursing some or all of these expenses if they are awarded for that purpose. If you are planning to use your research awards to reimburse living expenses whil on sabbatical, please contact the Assistant Dean of the L&S Business Office as soon as possible. We need to verify that the funds may be used for that purpose and give approval before the expenses are incurred.

Of particular note to departments is that these programs are mostly self-funded--completely so for the sabbaticals and partly so for the faculty development grants. Faculty development retraining grants include funding for one-half of the faculty member's semester salary; renewal grants include funding for only one-quarter of the semester salary. In forwarding a faculty member's proposal in either competition departmental colleagues are indicating a willingness to absorb the loss of that faculty member's teaching for the time indicated.  Department chairs should thus be prepared to rearrange staffing or perhaps not offer specific courses for a semester or year, and should be guided by this reality in determining how many such applications can be considered in a particular year. The opportunities presented by these two programs can be of long-range benefit to the entire department, however, and every effort should be made to assist qualified faculty members to participate.

Note  "Eligibility" for sabbatical is defined by calculating years of full-time service since the last sabbatical and deducting time spent on leave; the result must be greater than or equal to six.