Paid Parental Leave and Parental Tenure Clock Extension

Significant family responsibilities such as childbirth, adoption, and parenting often impose career disadvantages that women faculty, in particular, may face. It is important that faculty performance be evaluated in relation to the time that is realistically available for professional contributions given the nature of these family obligations. It is the goal of these policies to 1) help faculty balance the responsibilities of family and career development and 2) encourage and enable equal parenting.

1. Paid Parental Leave 

Policy:

  • Birth mothers are entitled to fully paid leave for sixteen weeks following the birth of a child and up to twenty weeks of total paid leave. The remaining four weeks will be paid at 64% or up to $1,149.90 a week. Non-birth parents are eligible for eight weeks of fully paid bonding leave and an additional four weeks of bonding paid at 64% or $1,149.90/week.
  • If the parental leave occurs during the “start-up period” of a tenure-ladder faculty member’s first term, any salary guarantee and/or salary savings agreement will be extended for the duration of leave taken. Any other leave-related issues affecting progress during the start-up period will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

 

Procedure:

  • Complete and submit the “Notification of Intention to Take Paid Parental Leave” section of this form as early as possible. Parental leave should be requested as far in advance of the child’s expected arrival date as soon as possible to provide departments with reasonable notice for planning purposes.
  • Submit the Faculty Sabbatical and Paid Leave of Absence Form to Lindsey Bartlett
  • Submit a claim to Lincoln Financial Group for any medical and parental leave, Harvard’s third-party administrator, at least thirty days prior to your effective date.
    • To file a leave request by phone, employees may call the Harvard dedicated number at 1-844-600-3978
    • To file a leave request online, employees may go to My Lincoln Portal at mylincolnportal.com and click on “Register for an account” under the “Log in” button. Instructions will be provided on the website throughout the leave submission process.

2. Tenure Clock Extension to Meet Childcare Needs 

Policy:

  • Tenure ladder faculty who become a parent of a child during their tenure-track period will be granted, upon notification of the birth or adoption, an automatic extension of their tenure clock by one year for each child. This type of extension will ordinarily be granted for up to two years. Faculty seeking subsequent parental clock extensions should please contact the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Jennifer Ivers (ivers@hsph.harvard.edu).
  • The granting of a tenure-ladder extension will not routinely entail an extension to the faculty member’s current term of appointment (i.e., the clock is generally extended in the final tenure-track term). A request to extend the faculty member’s current term must be submitted jointly by the faculty member and her/his department chair and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
  • Extensions will not be granted to faculty members who have already been notified that they will not be considered for reappointment or promotion.
  • The granting of an extension does not imply a guarantee of reappointment or promotion. Neither does it provide a guarantee of additional financial support to cover the period of the extension. Finally, the existence of this policy does not preclude a faculty member being terminated before the end of her/his term for lack of funding, as specified in the financial expectations outlined in the offer letter or in the signed letter of agreement.

Procedure:

  • If the “Notification of Intention to Take Paid Parental Leave” form has been submitted, it is not necessary to submit the additional “Notification” form below. The “Notification of a Birth or Adoption” form should only be used when the faculty member did not request parental leave.
  • Complete and submit the “Notification of a Birth or Adoption” section of this form.