Chloe Wright
Editor-in-Chief
A new University policy offers paid parental leave for staff and fewer salary cuts for full-time faculty who are primary parental caregivers. Full-time and some part-time staff will be eligible for eight weeks of paid leave instead of 16 unpaid weeks, and faculty can receive 60% of their salary for the semester they take off. The change, after several decades of employee pleas for an improved, competitive policy, comes amid Sewanee’s efforts to make the Mountain more attractive and affordable for faculty and staff to live on campus.
“The University is committed to supporting its employees and their families. The paid parental leave policy is one example of that commitment,” Provost Scott Wilson told The Sewanee Purple. “The University’s housing initiatives and policies to reduce the financial burden of building or buying a home are all intended to increase opportunities for employees to live in Sewanee. Taken together, the paid parental leave policy and housing initiatives will make it easier for employees to live and raise families on the Domain, which will benefit the University, its students, and the community.”
Staff and faculty are relieved about the change.
Energy Specialist Caroline Thompson, who has worked at the University for 10 years and recently went on maternity leave, said it “moves us into the 21st century a little bit…Staff have families and want to spend time with them. I’ll be a better employee if I have enough time to spend with my kid.”
Dr. Melody Lehn Hawkins, associate professor of rhetoric and chair of women’s and gender studies said the University’s previous policy lagged behind peer institutions like Rhodes College. Rhodes College offers faculty up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for a single semester and staff six weeks of paid parental leave.
“Faculty and staff look closely at policies like this one when considering whether to come and stay here, particularly in light of how this will impact compensation,” Lehn Hawkins told The Purple. “It is vital that we keep working to get parental leave right so that we can continue to be an attractive and accessible place of employment.”
The conversation around improving Sewanee’s paid parental leave policy started in the early 2000s. At that time, there was no approved and published policy for either staff or faculty, so faculty would teach more before their baby was born. Until the new policy was announced, staff would have to bank on sick, short term disability and vacation leave time and use it all when a birth happened.
So, the University’s American Association of University Professors chapter developed a proposal with the help of the late women’s and gender studies professor and then AAUP chapter president Julie Berebitsky. Their proposal offered faculty the chance to teach two classes and keep 100% of the pay for their leave semester, one class with 75% of pay, but it did not mention staff.
English Professor Kelly Malone helped shepherd the proposal as the chapter’s treasurer. “Before [former Vice-Chancellor John McCardell approved it],” Malone said, “that policy sort of sat with the University council for 18 months with no action at all.”
A measure adapted by the University in 2013 stated that faculty who took a semester off for parental leave would get 60% of their pay for the academic year. But staff still had no comparable paid leave beyond the vacation, short-term disability and sick leave time they could save up on.
Malone said she had colleagues who used that policy and did not realize they would lose part of their pay for the academic year. “If you don’t have an extra source of money, if you’re an assistant professor, if you are still dealing with student loans, that’s kind of a blow,” Malone said. “But it was sort of flying under our radar until really recently.”
It took until February 2026 for the faculty working group that she was taking part of to realize the 60% applied for their academic year instead of one semester and that, for Malone, “the policy was much worse than we had always thought it was.”
Provost Wilson said the 2013 faculty paid parental leave policy was good for its time but “had several areas that needed to be improved.”
The University’s benefits committee chaired by Director of HR Innovation Chris Champion collected data from peer institutions and spoke with the administration about how to move forward.
HR Director of People and Culture Jessica Welch was the HR representative on the Staff Partnership Council which conducted satisfaction surveys and voiced staff opinions to the administration. She noted that parental leave was a common theme for years. “I feel like that was my biggest contribution was just to be that voice that connected the Staff Partnership Council and administration about how important it was to staff.”
“We’ve been vocal about being interested in a parental leave policy, pointing out the inconsistency between faculty and staff and what is offered to both,” Welch said. “When you don’t have something truly defined, then it can lead to comparisons.”
As a faculty member who has been part of the debate for decades, Malone said, “When we were first pushing for this policy, it was always thrown back at us as, ‘You want something for the faculty but not for the staff.’” But now, she said the sentiment is different. “This round, the implication is not that we are getting in this at somebody else’s expense. Everybody has gotten an improved policy.”
Chief Financial Officer Isabelle Love also contributed to the policy development as a member of the policy review committee. “I saw an opportunity to help shape the recommendations coming out of the working group into policy language. I would say I helped shepherd the policy along, but this really came from the benefits committee and the working group.”
The University announced the policy change to the community by email in mid-September to positive feedback from staff and faculty.
“I’m very grateful for the efforts of various colleagues and offices in moving us forward from data collection and consciousness-raising into some concrete and meaningful change,” Lehn Hawkins said.
Staff welcomed the change. But some expressed concern that the policy won’t help everyone. Thompson noted that newer, non-exempt and hourly employees are still not eligible, and it could be hard for them to bank enough vacation and sick leave to be able to take off to care for a baby or adopted child. She added that she wishes the paid parental leave now being offered to eligible staff was longer than eight weeks, “but it’s so much better than it was. I think progress is worth noting, for sure.”
Under the new policy, faculty who are primary parental caregivers requesting a leave from their full teaching load for a semester will receive 60% of their full salary. If they opt to reduce their teaching load to one course for a semester, they will receive 80% of their salary. Asking for a one-course reduction for a semester will not reduce their pay. If they request partial leave time over two semesters, reducing their teaching load by two courses would give them 90% of their normal pay, and taking off a full three-course load would give them 80% of their normal salary. Parents who are not primary caregivers are eligible for two weeks of paid leave.
The Provost told the Purple that the aim is to support University families and strengthen Sewanee’s purpose as a residential liberal arts college community.
“The heart of the liberal arts experience is the close relationships forged among students, faculty, and staff who live in community with one another. The model of living in community facilitates holistic student formation that stretches beyond the confines of a classroom,” Wilson said. “I remember fondly from my own undergraduate days meeting with my honors project advisor in his home, sandwiched between the piano lessons that he offered to his twin sons. The opportunity to see family life outside of the classroom was an important part of my own formation. We hope and expect that the paid family leave policy and housing initiatives will encourage families to live on the Domain and provide such formative experiences to our current students.”
Across campus, there is also acknowledgement that welcome changes aren’t a final fix.
“I think that the gold standard for faculty parental leave is always a semester off with pay,” Malone said, “but we’re not there yet.”
Malone added that the change does not address the needs of employees who must take leave to care for aging parents or family. “Ideally there would be compensation for other kinds of leave as well.”
Love said the University will revisit the policy in a year. “The commitment to continue engaging in and continue thinking about benchmarking relative to our peers is very important.”