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Home > Faculty : Research Course Releases

Research Course Releases

2012/13 Research Course Releases
Request Deadline - Friday, 27 January 2012

Questions concerning faculty research course releases in the College of Liberal Arts should be directed to the Office of the Associate Dean for Faculty.

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General Statement

In addition to course releases that are provided as part of initial appointment set-up packages and retention packages, the college will award a limited number of course releases each year to facilitate the scholarly research or other creative work of regular, tenure-track and tenured faculty who are either approaching a review for tenure and/or promotion, or are in need of the course release to complete a major project or external grant.

Procedures and Guidelines

Academic units that wish to propose course releases to support the scholarly research or other creative work of tenure-track and tenured faculty must submit requests to the Office of the Associate Dean for Faculty no later than Friday, 27 January 2012.

For each course release requested, unit chairs/directors must provide a written request of no more than one page, to be submitted by email attachment to clafclty@umn.edu. If a department requests multiple course releases, the requests should be submitted in rank order. Requests for course releases must include the following information:

• name of faculty member and rank;
• term of proposed course release (fall or spring semester);
• project(s) to be supported by the course release;
• rationale for the course release at this time in the faculty member's career;
• an account of the courses taught by the faculty over the last three years, including any course releases taken and any paid or unpaid leaves held;
• a justification for replacing the course for which the course release is granted if there are exceptional and compelling reasons to do so.

Departments will be informed in March if request(s) have been approved.

Review Criteria

Requests for research course releases will be granted according to the following criteria:

• Preference will be given to faculty who are nearing a review for promotion or promotion and tenure, and who require a course release to complete a major project essential for strengthening an upcoming promotion or promotion and tenure case.
• Priority also will be given to faculty who require the course release to complete a major project (e.g., book, major grant for external funding, fieldwork/archival work, research collaboration, etc).

Conditions

• Faculty should not have had any paid research leaves for at least three full academic years prior to the year in which the course release will be used. This condition may be relaxed for probationary faculty.
• During the academic year of a research course release, faculty are expected to be in residence, and the research course release is expected to be the only reduction from regular teaching responsibilities.
• Faculty may not hold a sabbatical leave, a single semester leave, or any other paid research leave, whether funded by the University or by external fellowships, grants, or other sources during the academic year in which the research course release is held.
• Research course releases must be used in the term for which they are requested, and may not be transferred to other faculty or banked for future use.
• Under normal circumstances, the course for which the course release is granted will not be replaced. If there are exceptional and compelling reasons for replacing the course, a justification must be included in the written request described above.
• Units may request funding for temporary instructional needs (TINS) which result from the award of a research course release, however, the college cannot guarantee that such funding will be available. Funds for replacement teaching will be provided only under the most exceptional and compelling circumstances.