Faculty Family Support

 

Family Support for UMBC Faculty

UMBC is committed to working in partnership with the Office of the Provost and campus leaders to effectively support our community members with caregiving responsibilities.

 

At UMBC, we offer a variety of faculty support and leave options to help you balance your professional and family life, whether you are caring for a child or family member with a serious health condition.

We provide a number of ways to support you, including the following:

• Annual and Personal Leave: Leave earned by faculty members on 12-month appointments.
• Collegially Supported Leave: Faculty member’s academic responsibilities covered by colleagues, on a voluntary basis, for a period of time.
• Creditable Sick Leave: Sick leave accrued by faculty members based on the nature of their contract.
• Family Medical Leave: Leave guaranteed by the federal government for a life-changing event (birth, adoption, serious health condition).
• Redistribution of Duties: Adjustment of faculty members’ responsibilities among the three usual areas of their job – teaching, service, and research through the development of a Family Support Plan.

Please note that this webpage is merely an overview and introduction to our family support practices. If you’re considering making use of these supports, please review our policy and handbook in its entirety.

To learn more about our resources and policies, visit provost.umbc.edu/policies.

Throughout this webpage, we’ve referenced both our University System of Maryland Policies and our UMBC Faculty Handbook. The following sections of those policies are of particular importance:

UMBC Faculty Handbook, Leave Policy Section 11

• 11.6 Creditable And Non-Creditable Sick Leave
• 11.7 Annual Leave
• 11.9 Family and Medical Leave
• 11.9.1 Policy on Parental Leave and other Family Supports for Faculty

We are here to provide guidance as you explore your leave and support options. If you have specific questions, please contact the people and offices listed below:

Faculty Family Leave and Support Plans

If you’d like to learn more about taking family leave or creating your support plan, contact your department, program Chair, Director, or your Dean’s Office.

Medical Leave for a Health Condition

If you need to take leave for your own health condition, you should contact Human Resources at 410-455-2337 or hr.umbc.edu.

We know that raising a family is important work, and we want to support you in that. That’s why we follow the University System of Maryland (USM) policy that provides  faculty a variety of Parental Leave plans.

What is our Parental Leave Policy?

The USM policy provides paid parental leave for up to twelve weeks during a six-month period surrounding: the birth of a child; the recent adoption of a child; or, in certain circumstances, the assumption of other parenting responsibilities, such as foster parenting or legal guardianship of a child under the age of 6.

Under this policy, eligible faculty may use any form of annual, sick, personal or holiday leave, accrued or otherwise available under existing policies to attain the up to twelve-week parental leave period. If a faculty member has insufficient leave to attain twelve weeks of parental leave, UMBC will supplement paid leave days to bring the faculty member up to 12 weeks of leave time.

Who is Eligible for Parental Leave?

You’ll be eligible for parental leave if you meet the following criteria:

• You have tenure, are on a multi-year contract, or are on non-tenure-track with a multiyear contract;
• You have been employed at UMBC for six months;
• You have written affirmation that you will be the primary caregiver during your parental leave period.

What if I’m Part-Time Faculty?

We provide pro-rated leave for eligible part-time faculty.

What if my child’s other caregiver and I are both employed at UMBC?

If both you and your partner, spouse, or co-caregiver work at UMBC, you may both be eligible for paid parental leave as follows:

• Both caregivers may concurrently use accrued annual, sick, holiday, collegial, or personal leave with the birth of a child or adoption of a child and;
• A parent may use supplemental guaranteed paid leave under II.A. of USM Policy only during a period when that parent is the child’s primary caregiver.

Leave alone may not be enough to support you during a time of need or change. That’s why our policy also allows for the creation of a Family Support Plan that provides tenured or tenure-track faculty whose responsibilities are primarily instructional a way to assure continuity in their student instruction and other critical faculty duties. Different types of leave may be combined in creating a family support plan.

Per USM Policy, UMBC may offer family support plans to other categories of faculty as a matter of institutional policy. Please discuss this with your Chair/Director.

Steps to Creating Your Plan

You will develop your Family Support Plans in partnership with your department Chair, Dean, or – at your request – a designee of the Chair or Dean.

If you and your department Chair are unable to finalize your plan, or if your agreed-upon plan requires additional resources, your Dean or other academic affairs administrator can provide support in the development of the plan.

Once your plan is finalized, it will be shared with your Dean or designated academic affairs administrator.

Here are a few examples of what a plan might look like:

• Adjusting the balance of responsibilities among teaching, research, and service to allow greater flexibility in a faculty member’s schedule.
• Assuming instructional responsibilities other than classroom teaching for a semester (e.g., developing a new course or program).
• Using collegial coverage for the end of one semester for teaching duties and using creditable sick leave or a redistribution of duties for the following semester.
• Continuing normal research and service responsibilities while using intermittent sick leave for teaching days for one semester.
• Arranging for a colleague to cover a portion of your course (collegial coverage).
• Requesting the postponement of tenure review. This request should also be made in writing to your department Chair, who will then forward it to your Dean, and the Provost.