A member of The Catholic University of America faculty holding an appointment with continuous tenure may apply for sabbatical leave during every seventh year of full-time service at the University. Sabbatical leave is defined as a period devoted to research in fulfillment of the academic duty of contributing to the advancement of knowledge by research and by publication of scholarly works. The leave must be justified by its anticipated contribution to the faculty member's academic development and to the University aims, and will be granted only if it does not seriously impair the functioning of the faculty member's department (where applicable) or school. On return, the faculty member must submit a report of the activities undertaken to the dean of the faculty member's school and to the Provost.

Sabbatical leave may be granted for one semester at full salary or for two semesters at one-half salary, at the rate of the base annual salary. While on sabbatical leave, the faculty member may not engage in gainful employment beyond what is normally allowed during the academic year (cf. Faculty Handbook, III-E-1, Conflicts of Commitment).

An application for sabbatical leave, accompanied by a description of the project to be undertaken and endorsed by the cognizant department chair (where applicable) and school dean, must be submitted to the Office of the Provost no later than December 15 of the year preceding that for which leave is requested.

The complete Catholic University sabbatical policy is available in the Faculty Handbook on the University Policies website.

The Application for Leave for Catholic University faculty members can be found here.