All leaves are subject to provisions of Leave Policies in the Faculty Handbook 11.1 – 11. 1.4
The Dean of CAHSS encourages tenured and tenure-track faculty to seek external fellowship awards and thereby increase available support for their research and creative achievements (RCA). Prestigious fellowships confer recognition upon our faculty, advance faculty RCA, and enhance the profile of the University.
Fellowships are awards applied for, won by, and made to individual scholars. They are paid to those individual scholars, either directly or through the scholar’s institution. Funds that accompany fellowships generally take the form of salary replacement. In many cases, the fellowship stipend does not equal the awardee’s academic year salary. In such instances, the Office of the Dean will partner with the awardee to compensate for the loss of pay by providing a salary supplement for the duration of the award.
These guidelines are intended to support CAHSS faculty researchers equitably, transparently, and sustainably. This document is not a binding commitment and may have to be changed or suspended in the event of serious financial constraints on the College.
Eligibility:
- Fellowships must be awarded through a competitive, peer-reviewed process and be intended for research, scholarship, or creative work.
- While most fellowships require awardees to devote full-time effort on their proposed projects, some residential fellowships may include the requirement of teaching a course or seminar. Such arrangements are eligible for salary supplements. However, salary supplements will not be provided for arrangements that require substantial teaching at another institution.
- Examples of sponsors of fellowship awards previously won by CAHSS faculty and supported by the College include:
American Council of Learned Societies, American Psychological Association-Congressional, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Creative Capital, Ford Foundation, Fulbright, Getty Foundation, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Huntington Library, Institute of Advanced Studies (Princeton), Institute of Citizens & Scholars (Mellon Early
Career Fellowships), John W. Kluge Center (Library of Congress), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Newberry Library Fellowships, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund, Spencer Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation, Whiting Foundation. Note: This list is not exhaustive and will be updated as needed.
Salary Supplement Guidelines:
- The fellowship amount must be, at minimum, $20,000 per year toward salary. If the award is less than $20,000 per year and there are in-kind provisions made to the awardee, we can consider these toward meeting the required minimum. In the latter case, the awardee’s salary supplement, beyond 25% of the salary, will be based on a reasonable evaluation of the in-kind provisions.
- Salary supplements may be extended beyond the 9-month academic year (for disbursement during the summer months) if the fellowship award exceeds 25% of the awardee’s base 9-month base salary.
- The first $20,000 of the fellowship award or 25% of the awardee’s base salary, whichever is higher, will be used to cover the academic year salary regardless of the award period. 2
- The awardee is required to disclose all compensation from the fellowship (salaries, fellowship monies, fringe benefits, per diem, etc.) available to them during the proposed leave. Awardees should not engage in other compensated activities at UMBC while on fellowship leave.
- The sum of the fellowship salary and salary supplement support cannot exceed the 12-month salary based on the 9-month rate of pay (that is, the total earnings must be within the additional compensation limits – Faculty Handbook 9.3). Funds specified explicitly for research or travel expenses will be excluded from the calculation.
- The fellowship must be paid through the UMBC payroll system whenever allowed by the sponsor. If the sponsor requires that the fellowship is paid directly to the individual awardee, the amount of the fellowship will be deducted from the faculty member’s salary during the period of the fellowship leave. Health and retirement benefits will be continued during the period of the fellowship to the extent permitted by law. Faculty members with an approved fellowship leave can arrange through Human Resources to continue their health benefits under COBRA. The University will contribute to the faculty member’s retirement plan equal to the amount the State would have contributed during the period of fellowship leave.” (Faculty Handbook 11.1.5) Specific questions regarding health and retirement benefits while on a fellowship leave should be directed to the UMBC Human Resources Benefits Staff.
Duration & Commitment:
- Tenured faculty are allowed a maximum of twenty-four months of UMBC-supported fellowship leave, ordinarily limited to one time only, between regular sabbaticals. (Faculty Handbook 11.1.2). Tenure-track faculty in CAHSS may take a maximum of twenty-four months of any type of UMBC-supported fellowship leave prior to promotion with tenure.
Note: approvals for a two-year fellowship or consecutive fellowships are exceedingly rare. - A fellowship year, which is officially considered a Leave Without Pay (LWOP – Faculty Handbook 11.6.III.4) does not count as the year owed to the university for a sabbatical leave. (Faculty Handbook 11.5.6). Faculty accepting CAHSS salary supplement support must agree to return to full-time job duties for at least one year immediately following the conclusion of the leave period. This is consistent with university policy on paid sabbatical leave. (Faculty Handbook 11.2.1).
- Faculty wishing to accept any fellowship, grant, or similar opportunity that is excluded from CAHSS salary supplement support by these guidelines, may request to take a personal LWOP
Expectations:
- Faculty are asked to remember that the College is a contributing partner in this enterprise and needs to be involved in the planning early.
- When planning to apply for a fellowship, the faculty member must consult with their department chair. To be eligible for fellowship leave, all fellowship proposals must be routed institutionally to the Office of Sponsored Programs (Faculty Handbook 11.1.3) and to the Office of the Dean. See CAHSS Guidelines for Proposal Routing at https://cahss.umbc.edu/resources-for-faculty-staff/
- Once the fellowship award has been received the awardee must submit a formal application requesting a salary supplement. Application components must include:
- letter of support for the leave request from the awardee’s department chair
- copy of the award letter and budget from the funding agency that indicates the amount
and duration of the fellowship
- A report of the results of the leave is due upon completion of the fellowship. Email to Tammy Brown.