Sabbatical planning (#1294)

Topics/tags: Autobiographical

I’m eligible for a full-year sabbatical in 2025–26. At least that’s what the College tells me. At Grinnell, we get full-year sabbaticals every seven years (six years of teaching, one year of sabbatical) or half-year sabbaticals every four or so years (three years of teaching, a half year of sabbatical, three years of teaching, a second half year of sabbatical [1]). As the information page suggests, sabbaticals are not automatic; we must apply for them. However, any reasonable application is approved (at least in my experience).

For those unfamiliar with sabbaticals, many tenure-line faculty members [2,3] get some time off (typically every seven years) to work more intensively on a project. Sabbaticals can also provide some relief from the burnout that many academics experience [4]. Time away from classes and institutional service permits faculty to return to the classroom with new ideas (and, sometimes, new techniques) to bring to their students. It’s a great system; more fields should embrace it.

Grinnell is more generous to its faculty than most institutions. Half-year sabbaticals at full pay (or full-year sabbaticals at half pay) are more the norm. Grinnell also seems more likely to award sabbaticals than some institutions. They may not be automatic, but they are highly likely.

I plan to spend my sabbatical turning my mostly-static online materials for two courses (CSC-151, Functional Problem Solving, and CSC-207, Object-Oriented Problem Solving, Data Structures, and Algorithms) into more interactive online textbooks, potentially using runestone.academy platform for this purpose. I am drawn to Runestone Academy because it’s supposed to have good support for interactive exercises, particularly for Parsons Problems. I’m also interested in what Parsons Problems look like for Scheme; I’ve been told there aren’t many (any?) resources for Parsons Problems in Scheme.

Since sabbaticals aren’t automatic, we need to apply. The form of the application changes every so often, so I thought it best to check. Let’s see …. The procedures for applying seem to be on GrinCo [5]. We are required to write a two-page letter that details the following:

1. the type of leave (full-year or half-year);
2. the nature of the work;
3. the location of the work (and office needs);
4. the scholarly products or enhancements to teaching that will result [7];
5. an accommodation plan for advisees [8];
6. funding needed for the project;
7. a brief description of contributions to student research [9].

Why that brief description? Because the Dean who extended our sabbaticals to a full year wanted us to do research with students. Hypothetically, full-year sabbaticals are only supposed to be for those who regularly engage in research with students. However, none of the official documentation on sabbaticals says that, so the College would have trouble enforcing the policy. Hopefully, it’s not ever an issue.

Beyond the two-page letter, we need to notify our Chair of our plan to go on sabbatical (by the end of the first week of classes). We also need to discuss our plans for our advisees with our Chair. We are also permitted to supplement the letter with a longer research statement. And we have to include our most recent CV. I suppose I also have to get my Faculty Activities Reports up to date, too. I hate FARs. The information is in my CV; why must I repeat it and try to fit it into the categories some software designer chose?

Moving on, it seems time to consider my answers to the primary questions [n]. You’ll need to refer back to the questions.

1. It’s a full-year leave.

2. I plan to build interactive online open textbooks for CSC-151 and CSC-207. While the department faculty have already written some online open textbooks for CSC-151 and I’ve written most of one for CSC-207, they would benefit from additional polishing and, more importantly, the addition of interactive exercises. I am considering using the runestone.academy platform for this purpose.

3. I’ll be doing the work in Grinnell. I would like to keep my office, particularly since I will continue to advise students. I hope to have moved out of my research lab by the end of the 2024–25 academic year.

4. Two open textbooks.

5. No plan is needed; as long as I can keep my office, I plan to keep my advisees (and even add some this spring, when second-year students declare).

6. Hmmmmm. I think my normal scholarly funding should be enough. But I should reflect on that questions. Maybe there will be opportunities to attend workshops on Parsons Problems and/or Runestone.

7. Since my last sabbatical (in 2019–2020), I have supervised eighteen students in MAPs and MIPs, with some repetitions. I’ll have to dig up those names. I’ve added some research-preparation activities in both CSC-207, Object-Oriented Problem Solving, Data Structures, and Algorithms, and CSC-301, Algorithm Analysis. Yeah, that’s brief. I could also add the sorting competition in CSC-207 as a pre-research activity as well as the introduction of the ACM Code of Ethics in CSC-151 and CSC-207. How long can a brief description be?

That’s it for my initial reflections on the questions. I’ll put the letter together in the next few days. I’m not sure that I’ll answer the questions in the order presented.

What’s left?

I’ve informed my Chair. We’ve discussed my plans for advisees. I’ll need to update my CV as I last changed it in March. I’ll have to figure out how to fill out my FAR [10]. And I’ll need to look up the names of my MAP students.

I should be ready to submit it relatively soon.

[1] Or is that second part two and a half years of teaching, half year of sabbatical.

[2] At Grinnell, library faculty and PE faculty are also eligible for sabbatical.

[3] As I’ve said in the past, it would be nice to see Grinnell provide something like sabbatical for staff members.

[4] That’s one of the reasons I’d like staff at Grinnell to get sabbaticals, too.

[5] Login to GrinCo [6] required.

[6] GrinCo is what I call our SharePoint server, grinco.sharepoint.com.

[7] Isn’t it nice that we can use sabbatical to work on our scholarship or teaching? We can also use it for both.

[8] While logically correct, accommodation plan seems like a bad term, particularly since we use accommodation to refer to how we adjust our classes to support students with disabilities/differences.

[9] The instructions for this section are far from brief.

Examples of contributions may include (but are not limited to): directing MAPs (include name of student and title and term of MAPs if already completed); directing senior projects such as theses, performances, exhibitions (include name of student and title and term of projects if completed); teaching senior seminars designated as research intensive (include title of seminar and term taught); contributing to methods courses that scaffold the skills needed to undertake research (include title of courses); working closely with student research assistants who are also undertaking their own research; or any other ways in which the faculty member is contributing to student research. (Faculty should ensure their faculty activity report, which includes student research activity, is up to date).

[10] I have difficulty keeping the FAR up to date. I’d rather do things than log them.

Version 1.0 of 2024-08-04.