Parental Leave Policy - Faculty

Parental leave is available to benefit-eligible faculty with voting rights. Leave is available immediately following the birth (including through surrogacy) or placement of a child through adoption or foster care. This policy cannot be used, however, in the event of adoption of a spouse's or domestic partner's child.

Primary Parental Leave: Eight consecutive weeks of paid leave will be provided to a primary caregiver, to be taken immediately upon the arrival of a child. A primary caregiver is defined as a person who has primary responsibility for the care of a child following the birth or the child coming into the custody, care, and control of the parent for the first time.

Secondary Parental Leave: Four weeks of paid leave (which may be taken intermittently) will be provided to a secondary caregiver, to be used anytime within the first 12 months following the arrival of a child. A secondary caregiver is defined as a person who has parental responsibility for the child but is not the primary caregiver.

Faculty should request parental leave in writing to their dean as early as possible and no later than 90 days in advance of the requested leave. The Parental Leave form must also be completed at the same time - this form notifies Human Resources, who will contact the employee regarding time off and benefits. If eligible for FMLA, faculty also need to submit an FMLA Request form shortly prior to the commencement of their leave. HR will notify the faculty member if they are eligible for FMLA.

Additional Information

  • Medical complications for an employee giving birth may alter the timeline of the leave. Please contact HR to discuss additional leave options and work flexibility arrangements.
  • In the case of adoption, leave may begin earlier than the date of placement (e.g., travel to another country to complete the adoption).
  • Paid parental leave runs concurrent with FMLA, when applicable.
  • Faculty who wish to take more time off than the paid parental leave policy allows should speak with HR; FMLA (if applicable) will run concurrently.
  • The period of paid leave is not extended for multiple births or in case of adopting/fostering more than one child at the same time.
  • An untenured faculty member who becomes the primary caregiver of a child during the tenure probationary period shall be entitled to a one-year extension of the probationary period. The faculty member shall notify their dean as soon as the need for an extension becomes apparent, but in no event later than June 30 of the year prior to the academic year in which the tenure review would otherwise occur. A single one-year extension will be allowed regardless of the number of qualifying circumstances.
  • If an eligible faculty member's child arrives during the summer (June through August) or winter (December and January) months, primary parental leave will only apply for any balance of the eight weeks that the faculty member would otherwise have been expected to be back to academic term duties (i.e., if the child arrives two weeks before the start of the following term, the faculty member would receive six (6) weeks of paid parental leave beginning at the start of that term, but if the child arrives 10 weeks before the start of the fall term, the faculty member would not need the benefit of paid parental leave during the term, as they would not otherwise be losing any salary during the eight (8) weeks following the arrival of the child).
  • If an eligible faculty member's child arrives during the summer (June through August) or winter (December and January) months, the faculty member taking primary parental leave will be allowed to relinquish their teaching load in the following term, but will be required to resume their non-teaching duties such as advising, committee attendance, course planning, etc. after the paid primary parental leave, if any, exhausts.
  • Benefits and payroll deductions/withholdings will continue during the parental leave period as if the employee continued to work. Paid parental leave will override paid holidays but will not extend the total paid parental leave entitlement.
  • In cases where both caregivers are university employees, only one caregiver may be designated as primary for the purposes of this policy.
  • If an employee is a gestational surrogate, time off at delivery falls under the Short-Term Disability policy.

Please contact Human Resources with any questions.