Reading an article in today's Index got me thinking about Truman's "Sabbatical Leave Policy." It seems unusual, because a professor must work for seven years before being eligible for a sabbatical. Normally, a sabbatical would occur during a professor's seventh year (the derivation of the word 'sabbatical' comes from this idea). I did a quick internet search and found that virutally all the universities I looked into allowed sabbatical in the seventh year, not after seven years.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2001

Answers

I've also wondered about Truman's sabbatical policy. Many of the elite liberal arts institutions against which Truman is ostensibly competing offer faculty junior sabbaticals--after 3 years or so they are allowed a semester off to work on a research project. When I interviewed at Truman I asked about such a junior sabbatical and my division head laughed at me and said I should not even expect to receive a regular sabbatical--that they are competitive and I would be doing good to score one in my 10th year. I would go beyond "allowing" a sabbatical in the seventh year to demanding one as an integral part of our liberal arts culture.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001