Academic Council Approves Parental Leave, Tenure Clock Relief Polices

Duke University's Academic Council on Thursday approved new parental leave and "tenure clock relief" policies that will give faculty more flexibility in balancing their work and family lives.

Under the previous policy, maternity leave was considered "temporary medical leave" and available to birth mothers only.

The new parental leave policy allows a regular rank faculty member -- male or female -- to take a one-semester leave with pay (up to three months for the School of Medicine and School of Nursing) for the birth of a child, the adoption of a child under 6 years old or the birth of a domestic partner's child. The faculty member taking the leave must be the child's primary caregiver.

Thursday's vote also expanded the university's tenure clock relief policies. Under the old policy, a faculty member could only seek tenure relief if he or she were seriously ill. Now, a faculty member can extend the tenure probationary period for a variety of life events that could delay the research process.

Beyond serious illness, those life events include when a child is born or adopted in the faculty member's household; when a faculty member acts as the primary caregiver for a seriously ill parent, spouse, child or domestic partner; when a faculty member suffers the death of a parent, child, spouse or domestic partner; or when a faculty member suffers catastrophic residential property loss.

"This recognizes the nature and character of the modern family and the division of responsibilities in a progressive and family-friendly way," said Provost Peter Lange, whose office directed the policy's development.

The policy review was inspired last spring by an undergraduate research paper, which pointed out that the leave policy had not been re-examined in years. Lange and several faculty members worked closely with the School of Medicine and School of Nursing to hammer out a university-wide plan.

"It's a sign of the much greater level of cooperation and a sense of being one faculty throughout the university," Lange said, crediting the work of psychology professor Susan Roth and Ross McKinney, vice dean for research in the School of Medicine.

The cooperation resulted in a far-reaching policy "that we know, through the Women's Initiative, to be very important to the faculty," said Roth, who is chairing the Executive Committee of the Women's Initiative Steering Committee.

"It's a very progressive policy," Roth said. "There is genuine concern about the issues addressed in the policy by the administration. That's very heartening."

Nancy B. Allen, chair of the Academic Council, agreed.

"This policy is quite generous and extends well beyond the old maternity leave policy, which I remember working on with other faculty in 1989," said Allen, a professor of medicine. "The addition of adoptive leave and expansion to covering domestic partners and either parent are right for our society today. On the topic of tenure clock relief, this policy will help many faculty with life events and crises, and reflects the administrations' understanding of and attention to the lives of faculty outside the university."