The UW received a 2006 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation "Flexible Faculty Career" Award.
The UW has comprehensive package of policies and programs designed to support faculty in balancing productive academic careers with satisfying personal lives. Our goal is to support faculty through the various stages of life. This will enhance the ability of the UW to recruit and retain the best and brightest faculty, and enhance the ability of faculty to perform their best teaching and research.
Although the University of Washington has excellent leave policies, certain situations may require different solutions or supplemental support. As part of the UW Provost's Office commitment to UW faculty, it has established the Transitional Support Program (TSP) for any professorial level faculty member (including without tenure due to funding and research) to provide exactly this type of additional support.
The program is available for faculty who are in the midst of potentially career-threatening crises, such as
The phenomenon of dual career partners has emerged as a critical recruitment issue in higher education. The decision to accept a new position and relocate to another city is a personal one. Increasingly the job prospects for both partners are seriously considered when couples weigh career opportunities.
The University of Washington has responded to the emergence of dual career partners by informally providing job assistance services to the partners of new employees who also seek faculty or professional positions in the Puget Sound area.
The University recognizes that under special circumstances, such as care for new infants, faculty women and men must devote extraordinary efforts to their family responsibilities which may significantly detract from their research and academic capabilities. Even if the faculty member continues to work full time, efforts normally devoted to scholarship may necessarily be reduced by these new family responsibilities. In recognition of these family obligations, the University has developed several programs to stop temporarily the tenure clock.
When a faculty member takes a leave of absence without salary at 50% or more and for six months or longer, the year in which the leave is taken is not counted as a year towards mandatory tenure review.
In the situation where a faculty member becomes a parent but chooses to take less than six months leave, or when other family care responsibilities have interrupted the regular dedication to teaching or scholarship, she or he may request the year in which this occurs not count as a year towards the mandatory tenure review. The faculty member who wishes a year be waived on the tenure clock may apply through her or his department chair and dean to the Provost. Please contact Academic Human Resources for additional information, 206-543-5630 or email at: acadpers@u.washington.edu