Faculty members in the School of Medicine have long been encouraged to engage in professional activities outside of UAB that advance their individual careers and the academic mission of the SOM and the university. The existing policy divides the types of leave into two categories: “External Activity Leave” and “Professional Leave.” External Activity Leave includes actions like consulting with a pharmaceutical company/device maker or serving as an expert in a medicolegal case. Professional Leave refers more specifically to “Professional Public Service Activities” and includes the following categories:
• Seminars, lectures, service on advisory committees or boards of directors, or review panels for US federal, state, or local government agencies, institutions of higher education, academic teaching hospitals, medical centers, or research institutes that are affiliated with an institution of higher education
• Professional studies, services, participation on boards of directors, or participation in manuscript review, grant/contract review, or academic program review for nonprofit/philanthropic entities, professional societies, or professional associations, that are not affiliates of or affiliated with industry or other for profit entities;
• Seminars, presentations, performances, or board service for civic groups
• Participation on boards of directors with UAB Enterprise affiliated entities
The existing policy detailed a limit of 20 days per year for External Activity Leave, but the parameters for Professional Leave were less explicitly defined. After hearing from departmental leaders that the SOM would likely benefit from clarifying and updating the policy, a committee made up of SOM leaders was formed in order to lead the revision of the policy, which is titled “Guidelines for Professional Leave and External Activity Leave for School of Medicine Faculty Members.”
The committee began its work by connecting with other prominent academic medical institutions such as Vanderbilt, Duke, Michigan, Yale, Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins, Emory, and more in order to gain insight into the details of existing policies that are effective. Most of the programs had clear, built-in guidelines for professional and external leave that averaged at about one day per week each year, with the caveat that none of the opportunities would compromise the faculty member’s teaching, clinical, or other academic activities.
After several months spent discussing edits to the policy, the committee unanimously agreed on setting a limit of 52 days yearly for a combined amount of Professional Leave and External Leave Activity for full-time faculty members. External Leave Activity is restricted to 20 of those 52 days. Additionally, the updated policy encourages department leaders to set departmental-specific policies as needed to enhance the goals of their department. Moreover, as tracking all leave in eLAS is required (HR policy 208), faculty members can easily keep up with how many days they have utilized. The policy also clarifies that activities performed by full-time faculty in direct support of their UAB jobs (i.e. visiting a lab to utilize equipment that UAB lacks for research endeavors) are exempt from the 52-day limitation. And finally, it reasserts that all leave activity must also abide with provisions in UAB’s university-wide leave policy—HR Policy 128. These rules can be complex to interpret and since it is important all faculty understand the policies, the SOM will require a short training module for all faculty and approvers for external activities in the near future.
Anupam Agarwal, M.D., executive vice dean for the School of Medicine and leader of the committee to update the policy, is pleased with the result of the group’s work. “These updates aren’t meant to be punitive in any way,” said Agarwal. “Rather, they create a more consistent mechanism for enabling faculty members to pursue outside involvement in activities that develop their careers and enhance the UAB School of Medicine name. They also provide departments with better guidelines for helping their faculty members balance their outside activities with their UAB-related responsibilities.”
The updated policy was approved at the School of Medicine Executive Committee meeting on April 16 and can be read in full here. It is scheduled to go into full effect on October 1 of this year. SOM leadership is working with UAB IT to create an alert to be sent to faculty members and their supervisors when they’ve reached a certain threshold of professional or external leave.