See Section A.2: General Statement on Employee Benefit Plans, for the definition of continuing Faculty appointments and the definition of a half-time Faculty appointment. A one-semester leave of absence for any purpose other than a sabbatical leave granted under the 1975 policy is considered a two-course semester. A full-year leave of absence for any reason is considered a five course-leave. (Revised June 2002)

The following policy statement concerning Sabbatical Leave was adopted by the Trustees on March 22, 1975:

In order to provide each Faculty member with the opportunity for intellectual self-renewal, Trinity College grants sabbatical leaves in the expectation that they will be used for research and other professional and scholarly activities. A sabbatical consists of a half-year leave of absence at full salary or a full year at half salary. Any eligible Faculty member whose proposed sabbatical activities are recommended by his or her department chair and whose application is received by the Dean of the Faculty by the deadline noted below shall be granted a sabbatical in the year requested unless unanticipated or extraordinary institutional interests require a deferment.

This statement was modified by the following resolution adopted by the Trustees on May 19, 2001 for implementation beginning with the 2002-03 academic year:

We endorse the adoption of a revised sabbatical leave policy that (a) is based on a full-time teaching residency requirement of not fewer than six consecutive semesters, with the proviso that neither semester of the year in which a sabbatical is taken shall count toward meeting the residency requirement for the next sabbatical; (b) eliminates other College-funded research leaves for tenured Faculty; (c) does not result in a net loss of courses taught by tenured Faculty; and (d) approximates neutrality in its financial effects.

Eligibility: In the year following the completion of six consecutive semesters of full-time academic year teaching, tenured Faculty members are eligible to take a two-course semester leave of absence at full pay. The year in which a quadrennial sabbatical leave is taken does not count toward the six-semester residency requirement for that or a subsequent quadrennial leave. Semesters during which a tenured Faculty member is on family leave with pay or medical leave with pay do not count toward the six-semester residency requirement, but they are not considered breaks in consecutive service. A semester taken as unpaid leave does not count toward the six-semester residency requirement and it is a break in consecutive service. Normally, a Faculty member on a reduced teaching schedule occasioned by other approved service to the College must teach at least one course in order for the semester to count toward the full-time consecutive teaching residency. Consecutive full-time teaching residency subsequent to the year in which a Faculty member is on junior Faculty leave (see below) counts toward a quadrennial leave provided the Faculty member is tenured.

With the approval of the Dean of Faculty, a quadrennial leave may be postponed for one or three years. If the scheduled quadrennial leave is postponed for one year of full-time resident teaching, these two semesters of service will be applied to the residency required for a subsequent quadrennial leave. If the scheduled quadrennial leave is postponed three years and a tenured Faculty member thus completes twelve consecutive semesters of teaching, a full year leave may be taken at 80% of full salary.

Faculty members may not take a quadrennial leave during the academic year in which they retire from College service.

Benefits: Regular College benefits are continued during Quadrennial Leaves. Faculty members pay their normal share of premium costs. TIAA-CREF retirement plan contributions are based upon actual base salary payments.

Application: Application must be made in writing to the applicant's Department Chair and forwarded to the Dean of the Faculty by the department chair, with his or her evaluation and endorsement, not later than September 10 of the year preceding the academic year in which leave is requested. (Revised June 2002)

Tenure-track Faculty members in the fourth year of employment are granted a leave of a two-course semester for the purpose of pursuing scholarly or creative projects. As with quadrennial leave, application must be made in writing to the Department Chair and forwarded to the Dean of the Faculty, with the evaluation and endorsement of the Chair, by September 10 of the year preceding the period of leave. (Revised July 1993)

Benefits: Quadrennial Sabbatical Leave benefits apply.

Leave of absence without pay may be granted to a full-time continuing Faculty member when doing so would not seriously hamper maintenance of necessary course offerings or other College functions. Application should be made as specified above for quadrennial sabbatical leave. The maximum duration of an unpaid leave of absence or the combination of a sabbatical/quadrennial leave with a leave of absence is two years. A Faculty member who is on leave for two years must then be in full-time teaching residence for at least six consecutive semesters before taking any additional leave. Faculty members are required to pay for the full cost of dental and medical insurance premiums during leaves of absence without pay. Other benefits are suspended until the Faculty member returns to his/her position at the College.

The Faculty Research Committee administers grants programs each year that provide support for faculty research and creative activities. The committee comprises six elected members of the faculty, with at least one member from each disciplinary group—natural sciences and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, and arts—and no more than one from any department. The committee is joined by the Associate Academic Dean and by the Director of Faculty Grants (who provides administrative assistance but is not a member).

In addition to the research support programs for faculty members and students—described briefly below and in greater detail on the Faculty Research Committee website() – the FRC sponsors a series of ten faculty lectures each academic year. 

Programs for Faculty Members

The Faculty Research Committee administers funds available through the Dean of Faculty’s budget to aid faculty in their scholarly endeavors. Such aid is available for all stages of research, from inception to the final push to publication or performance. [NB: as used here, "research" also includes creative activities in the arts intended to lead to public performances or exhibitions, or publication.]

During the 2007-08 year, the FRC will consider faculty requests for research support under two programs:

Faculty Research Grants: These grants are intended to help begin new scholarly projects or to support work already in progress. Proposals may request support of one or two years’ duration. Faculty members who plan a longer project may present this in their initial application, but any renewed funding will be based on a competitive proposal that clearly presents the accomplishments of the original funded period.

This program replaces the previous programs of One-Year and Three-Year Research Expense Grants.

Faculty Research Grant proposals will be considered twice yearly, in October and late January. Ordinarily, they will be for periods starting the June 1 after the academic year in which they are made. The announced deadlines are firm; it is the policy of the FRC that late applications will not be considered.

For a detailed program announcement, visit the Faculty Research Committee website (see above).

Completion Grants: These grants are intended to provide faculty members with funds to defray the costs of bringing their scholarship to the public arena. Examples of such costs include page or indexing charges, permissions, and exhibition staging charges. Normally, a request to fund the purchase of reprints as a stand-alone item is not fundable; however, a faculty member may make such a request if there is a necessity for high-resolution images which cannot otherwise be adequately reproduced. Requests for such grants will be considered on a rolling basis by a sub-committee consisting of the Chair of the FRC and the Associate Academic Dean. Ordinarily, such grants will be for less than $2,000.

Applicants should e-mail to the Chair of the FRC and to the Associate Academic Dean a brief explanation for the expenses (such as page rates for indexing, or title of article and name of journal for page charges) and an estimate of the costs to be incurred.

* * * * *

The Faculty Research Committee recognizes that these categories may not cover all eventualities. If an unanticipated research situation arises that cannot be accommodated under these categories, please contact the Chair of the FRC.

Support for Student Research

The Faculty Research Committee has long provided support for research experiences for Trinity undergraduates. Changes to be initiated in 2007-08 are intended to provide greater flexibility in accommodating the research needs of both faculty members and students.

Under the Faculty Research Grants program [see above], proposals of longer than one year’s duration may include a request for up to $4,000 in personnel costs of research assistance. As distinct from the Student Research Program [see below], this aspect of the Faculty Research Grants is intended primarily to suit the needs of the faculty member’s research. Assistants will not necessarily be Trinity undergraduates, nor will the work experience necessarily be an educational one.

The Student Research Program (SRP) enables faculty members to provide supervised research opportunities for Trinity undergraduates. Proposals are normally prepared by the faculty member and are for research projects that the faculty member is conducting. The principal criterion by which proposals are judged, however, is the educational benefit to the student.

Students receive a maximum stipend of $3,500 for 10 weeks’ full-time work (or the equivalent). For those working during the summer, the program’s benefits also include on-campus housing.

The FRC will consider SRP proposals under two deadlines, in late October and early February. For a complete description and applications forms, visit the Faculty Research Committee website (see above).

The FRC will launch a new program in 2007-08, the Student-Initiated Research Grants (SIRG). This reimbursement program is intended to defray the costs of student-initiated, faculty-mentored research projects for work than cannot be conducted at Trinity. Of particular interest to the committee will be proposals for research leading to a senior thesis. The proposal—including a project narrative, budget, and budget justification—must be written by the student applicant; the sponsoring faculty member will provide a statement of support, emphasizing the feasibility of the student’s plan.

The maximum award will be $2,500, and stipends will not be provided. There will be one deadline, on April 1, 2008. For further information, visit the Faculty Research Committee website (see above).

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Program Limitations and Requirements: The Faculty Research Committee considers requests for travel support—from faculty members and students—only insofar as it is directly related to the research activity itself. Requests for travel to professional meetings, including travel to present the results of FRC-funded research, should be directed to the Associate Academic Dean.

FRC awards may not normally be used to defray the costs of capital equipment (e.g., computers, cameras). Award recipients are responsible for proper stewardship of grant funds and adherence to the approved budget.

Faculty members may submit applications for more than one project in a given year. However, in order to ensure an equitable allocation of funds, the FRC will, if necessary, fund acceptable single proposals before considering further applications from one person or group.

At the conclusion of the period specified in the grant—or at least annually, in the case of longer-term grants—the grant recipient must submit a report to the Associate Academic Dean and to the Director of Faculty Grants.

(Revised May, 1999 ; July, 2007 )

Research and Publication .  Funds are available to assist Faculty with expenses incident to research or publication, when financial help is not available from other sources. Please refer to the previous section, College Supported Faculty Research Programs, and the Dean of Faculty’s website for details.

(Revised July, 2007 )

A. Eligibility: Three categories of participation by full-time, continuing Faculty members are recognized:

1)Official or voting representative of the College;

2)Formal presenter of a prepared paper, or recognized discussant, panelist, or convener for a formal session listed in the meeting program;

3)Attendee (i.e. non-contributor).

B. Reimbursement Schedules: Faculty members who meet the eligibility requirements specified in 1 or 2 (above) may receive reimbursement for their registration fees, transportation, and reasonable lodging costs, along with a maximum meal allowance of $45 per day (including travel days).  Normally, faculty meeting these requirements in 1) or 2) will have their expenses covered in this fashion for one such trip per year.  Conference attendees (category 3 above) may be reimbursed for one-half of their approved travel, registration, lodging, and meals (within the $45 per day allowance). For budgetary reasons, the Associate Dean may find it necessary to limit total expenditures for any single event or by any individual Faculty member.  Faculty members may also apply for reimbursement for more than one such trip, but, depending on the budget, it may not be possible to fund the request. In particular because of steep increases in airfares and the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, it will be very difficult to fund another trip for faculty who plan to travel or who have already traveled outside the continental U.S. Faculty members whose appointments are less than full-time or who are on one-year appointments may also request assistance from the Associate Dean, but, depending on the budget, assistance may not be at the same levels as above.

C. Procedures and Practices: Faculty members wishing to arrange for support of professional travel should contact the designated Associate Academic Dean in writing using a Travel Request (available from all departmental secretaries or from the Dean of Faculty’s website). The application must specify the name and location of the conference, the title of the presentation or panel assignment (if applicable) of the attendee, and the likely costs which will be incurred. Faculty members who fail to apply in advance should not expect reimbursement.

In order to facilitate tracking of funds, applications will be considered on the following schedule: For travel occurring from November through February, applications should be received no later than October 1. For travel occurring from March through June, applications should be received no later than February 1. For travel occurring from July through October, applications should be received no later than June 1. In exceptional circumstances the Associate Dean may approve requests which are made outside the applicable deadline.

Reimbursement will be made only upon submission to the Associate Dean of a signed, completed copy of the Travel Expense Report form (available from all departmental secretaries or from the Dean of Faculty’s website) accompanied by a set of proper receipts (where available) from hotels, restaurants, travel services, credit cards, etc. In addition, a copy of the entry in the official program of the conference listing the Faculty member's contribution should be provided.  As a general rule, travel advances will be provided only when absolutely necessary.

Please note:

• Approval of reimbursement requests is subject to the continued availability of funds.

• Applications for reimbursement should be made as early as possible, and in any event before the listed deadlines.

• No more than one such trip is guaranteed to be covered in such a fashion.

(Revised July, 2007 )

A Faculty member who wishes to make use of the Libraries of Harvard or Yale for a period of at least six months in duration may take advantage of the following arrangement: The first $100 of the total cost will be borne by the individual Faculty member. The College will bear two-thirds of all expenses in excess of $100. Applications can be made through the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.

Limited funds are available to Faculty members to entertain students at Faculty residences. Contact the Office of the Dean of Students.

The use of College vehicles is restricted to the performance of College business. College-owned vehicles are available for use by Faculty, staff and students who have been authorized to drive Trinity vehicles. Authorization may be obtained by submitting a Trinity College Driver Information Form to Carol Porrino Kessel, Williams 128. Please refer to the Policy Concerning Use of Trinity College Vehicles for further information regarding criteria for use ofCollege vehicles. The Policy appears in the Fleet Control Sectionof the Trinity College Safety and Loss Control Manual. Call Carol Porrino Kessel at extension 2032 to request forms or for furtherinformation.

State of Connecticut statutes require a public passenger transportation permit (PPTP) for individuals driving a vehicle designed to transport 8 to 15 passengers (including driver). A personal use exemption is extended when the driver is the only passenger in the vehicle. A PPTP may be obtained through the Connecticut Motor Vehicle Department.

The Trinity College Vehicle Request Form must be used to reserve aCollege vehicle and should be submitted to Buildings and Grounds atleast one week prior to the date a vehicle is needed. Vehicles arereserved as requests are received on a first come, first servedbasis. The Trinity College Trip Report must be completed andreturned with vehicle keys following use of a vehicle.

Departments who are assigned vehicles have responsibility foradministering all aspects of the Policy Concerning Use of Trinity College Vehicles.

Coverage is provided for Trinity Faculty in an amount up to $10,000 on items consisting principally of books, journals, scientific equipment, and office or computing equipment which are located on the premises of the College. Each loss will be subject to $250 deductible. The Business Office expects that all Faculty members will, at regular intervals, complete a declaration form itemizing and valuing all on-premises property.