"Being away from campus" can take a variety of forms, spurred by a variety of causes. On this page we'll give a short explanation of different leave types, a little guide of what to think about as you prepare for leave, and instructions for how to get your leave started.

Do note that this page is written with an eye toward those in the Professor and Professor of Teaching series. If you are a lecturer or graduate student instructor, never fear – although they differ, you do still have leave options! To chat about them, please contact Will Angel. 

If you're travelling internationally during your leave, do remember to register your travel, too! 

Professional Development and Sabbatical

• Leave of Less than 7 Days (Professional Development, Travel, etc.)
• For personal leaves, leaves for professional development, leaves to attend professional meetings, or leaves for other University business, Department Chairs may approve the leave if the absence is for seven calendar days or less. You can click here to launch the "Seven Days or Less" form; please do so at least 30 days before the date of leave. 
  
  If you are taking Summer Compensation, do note that this process is still required during the period of your summer employment. 
  
  Resources
  - This process is governed by APM-752. It's a brief one!
  - If you have any questions about this leave, or would like help submitting it, you're always welcome to contact Will Angel. 
  - Your Chair can also chat further on its suitability for your academic purposes. 
• Longer-Term Professional Development Leave and Personal Leaves
• Personal leaves over seven days fall back to the "usual" means with which you may be familiar: submitting a leave request through MyInfoVault. They're governed by APM-758 (for paid leave) and APM-759 (for unpaid). 
  
  Leaves in this category can span from the routine (serving as a juror for an extended period of time is, for example, APM-758 Paid Leave, to the generally-unusual (taking a visiting appointment at another institution would be an APM-579 Unpaid Leave in some circumstances). As that might suggest, more specific guidance is a bit hard to offer as there's a bit of breadth; if you have any questions about this leave, or would like help submitting it, you're always welcome to contact Will Angel.
  
  Resources
  - With such leave types, it's worth chatting with your Chair about your plans, if you are comfortable doing so. 
  - Academic Affairs maintains a little guide on submitting leaves of this type. 
• Sabbatical Leave
• Here's where we get a bit more complicated! As you may be aware, sabbatical leaves are intended to support your drive to maintain and improve your teaching skills and scholarly ability/proficiency by giving you leave to pursue periodic and intensive programs of research and study. 
  
  This section is intended to give you an overview of the basic process, but the main bullet point is: chat with your Chair and Will Angel when you are comfortable doing so. Most sabbaticals are very similar but very few are entirely alike, and so the most detailed guidance will always depend on the specific circumstances. 
  
  Sabbatical Credit
  
  Credit toward sabbatical leaves is earned each quarter you're on normal service. As always in life, definitions of "normal" may vary, but the short version is that if you are pursuing your usual duties and not on another leave type you are generally accruing sabbatical one (1) sabbatical credit per quarter. 
  
  Sabbatical credit gets expended at varying rates. The baseline is that nine credits are required for one quarter of sabbatical credit at 100% of your normal salary (and 18 for two quarters, and so forth). You can use fewer credits per quarter, e.g. six credits is sufficient for either a sabbatical-in-residence (meaning that you are still teaching or performing significant service) or a full sabbatical at 67% salary. 
  
  If you're curious about your sabbatical accrual, Will is happy to help! Campus systems can be a bit behind-the-times, so the department maintains its own record which you are very welcome to audit. 
  
  Sabbatical Usage
  
  If you are comfortable doing so, speaking with your Chair is always a great place to start. Likewise, looping in Will Angel is a good plan too. Some sabbaticals have some interesting permutations, so getting as early a start as possible is helpful in case we need answers from the College or Academic Affairs.
  
  The first "formal" step is to submit your sabbatical through MyInfoVault (MIV). Either you or Will can start the request on its way (here's a little guide on doing so); it requires a bit of information on the leave period, credit usage, the plan while on leave, and how your teaching will be distributed. 
  
  The leave request travels to your Chair for approval, and then through the College to Academic Affairs. Once approved, we'll be notified through MIV. There's a little bit of data entry on the back-end which Will will take care of.
  
  Upon Your Return
  
  Once your sabbatical leave has concluded, you do have a bit of homework: a Sabbatical Leave Report! This is a brief report on the result of your sabbatical – an account of work performed, changes from the initial plan, and so on. On your return, Will will have a more detailed request; he will submit the result into MIV. It's important to get this done since the College will not approve future sabbatical leave until your "owed" Leave Report is on file. 
  
  Remember that any travel receipts you'd like to submit for reimbursement can be submitted to blueclusterbuy@ucdavis.edu, too!
  
  Resources
  - Sabbatical Leave itself is defined by Regents Policy 2305.
  - APM-740 is the section of the APM governing sabbaticals, and serves as the primary reference for a lot of the questions which might arise. 
  - Check out our Sabbatical Leave FAQ! 

Medical, Family Care, and Life Situation Leaves

• Sick Leave up to Six Days
• The newly-revised APM-710 gives all members of the faculty a bank of six days of sick leave per calendar year, to be used at your discretion. You need only click here to let us know that you're using a sick day. No fuss or medical documentation necessary!
• Sick Leave Exceeding Six Days
• If you're sick and need a quarter (or more) off to recover, never fear! Most academic appointees have at least two quarters of paid sick leave in banks which refresh every ten years, per APM-710. This tends to be a great place to start because it supersedes other kinds of leave (e.g. if you do not qualify for paid Family Medical Leave for your own health condition, you likely still qualify for paid APM-710 leave). 
  
  When and if you are comfortable doing so, please let Will, your Chair, and (if you are teaching) Anya and your undergraduate program Chair know that you need time away. From a formal perspective, what will happen for an APM-710 leave is:
  
  • Will will inform the Shared Services center, who will work with you to document the medical necessity. 
  • The Shared Services folks will provide the department with an email just saying "the necessity of this medical leave has been documented". The department does not need your HIPAA-protected information.
  • Will can help you submit a personal medical leave request in MyInfoVault.
  • If you are teaching, Will and Anya will work with your Chair(s) to request replacement funding from the college, and hire a qualified lecturer or AI so that you need not worry about your class. 
  • Central Campus will approve your leave, and you can focus on your treatment and recovery.
  
  There are other types of medical leaves available, but the conditions around their use can be specific enough that "general" guidance is not helpful. For more information, you can contact Will; if you would prefer not to discuss your medical leave plans with anyone in the department for now, you can get in touch with our Academic Personnel Analyst at Letters & Sciences, Jenny Shorts.
• Childbearing/Childrearing Leave and ASMD
• Per APM-760, UC Davis offers up to one quarter/semester of paid leave for those eligible academic appointees who give birth and up to one quarter/semester of paid leave for the primary parent in the case of placement for adoption or foster care.
  
  In addition, UC Davis supports academic appointees needing time off to care for a family member or to bond with a new child. The Pay for Family Care and Bonding (PFCB) program provides eligible appointees with paid leave while on an approved Family and Medical Leave (FML) or leave under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA). Beginning January 1, 2023, PFCB provides income replacement of 100% of eligible earnings for up to eight (8) workweeks each calendar year.
  
  Active Service-Modified Duties (ASMD) is not a leave, but a period during which normal duties are reduced so that an academic appointee may prepare for and/or care for a newborn child or a child under age five newly placed for adoption or foster care.
  
  As with all medical leave, the specifics can get very specific. Please visit the Academic Work Life Program webpage or contact Will for more specific guidance in this area.
• Bereavement and Reproductive Loss
• The UC does have separate leave allowances for these situations, and mercifully they're quite simple relative to the rest. 
  
  In case of the death of an appointee's (grand)child, (grand)parent, spouse/domestic partner, or sibling, APM-758 specifies 10 working days of leaves -- and 5 working days for the death of an individual who is not a family member. Do note that these days need not be taken consecutively. 
  
  If you have experienced reproductive loss, APM-758 also specifies 5 days of leave. Specific examples are defined in the APM, but effectively "reproductive loss" means any circumstance where a new child (including via adoption) formerly expected will not be joining your family. 
  
  For more information, you can contact Will; if you would prefer not to discuss these life events with anyone in the department for now, you can get in touch with our Academic Personnel Analyst at Letters & Sciences, Jenny Shorts. Please also remember that the UC has the Academic and Staff Assistance Program (ASAP), who are there to talk if you would like. They can provide consultations and referrals to other mental health resources, and also run support groups on campus.