Policy 366: Parental Caregiving with Modified Duties (PCMD)

Section: Personnel Policies
Sub-Section: Benefits
Policy Number: 366
Subject: Parental Caregiving with Modified Duties (PCMD)
Covered Employees: All Faculty
Origin Date: June 23, 2017
Effective Date: June 23, 2017
Download the PDF File for Policy 366

366.1 POLICY

Entrance into the Parental Caregiving with Modified Duties (PCMD) program is available to faculty who meet the eligibility requirements and obtain administrative approval. Administrative approval may be granted after determining that the PCMD leave request is in the mutual best interest of the faculty member and the University. PCMD leave is a privilege granted at the University’s discretion.

Parental caregiving with modified duties (PCMD) is designed to allow all faculty to request relief of up to six credit hours of teaching for one semester either spring or fall due to the birth or adoption of a child, while continuing to perform other job responsibilities. The faculty member will be expected to continue professional activities such as research and working with graduate students. Fulfilling these expectations will prevent students from being disadvantaged by the disruption of instruction and grading that might be caused by having an instructor take time off during the middle of a semester. Faculty who teach more than six credit hours may request to receive additional reduction in teaching credit hours with a reduction in salary commensurate with the number of credit hours beyond six credits.

Under this policy, PCMD shall begin January 1 for spring semester and July 1 for fall semester and, no more than three (3) months prior to the expected birth/placement of a child and no more than twelve (12) months following the birth/placement. A semester, for purposes of this policy, is defined as January 1 – June 30 for Spring and July 1 – December 31 for Fall semesters.¹

¹ This policy is designed to be used in either fall or spring semesters because faculty are normally paid in summer for their work in spring and fall terms. Using this policy in the summer requires negotiations with the Department Head and Dean to develop a plan and approval from the Provost. A plan should include the sources of funds and explain the circumstances that create the necessity of using PCMD in the summer.

1.1 Eligibility

(1) All faculty, both male and female, are eligible for PCMD.

(2) The faculty member must be the primary caregiver for the newborn or adopted child during the period that PCMD is in place.

(3) An adopted child must be under the age of six or a special needs child under 18 years of age. A special needs child is one who is incapable of self-care on a daily basis because of physical or mental disability.

(4) A faculty couple jointly sharing responsibility as primary caregivers for a child may split the use of PCMD and each receive relief from a total of six credits for the couple for a semester. Each faculty member would then receive 95% of their salary during the 16 week semester (or two different semesters) that they use the PCMD policy.

366.2 PROCEDURES

2.1 Initiating Parental Caregiving with Modified Duties

(1) To initiate PCMD, the faculty member will submit a formal request as soon as possible on the PCMD form provided by Human Resources, stating the dates during which he/she will activate PCMD. The faculty member will affirm that he/she will be the primary caregiver for the child during the semester in which the PCMD is used.

(2) The request will be approved by the department head, academic dean or vice president for extension, and, where applicable, the chancellor or regional dean, and the provost, and submitted to Human Resources.

2.2 Tenure and Post-Tenure Review Extensions

Upon approval of a PCMD request, a tenure-eligible faculty member may seek a one-year extension of her/his pre-tenure probationary period (Policy 405.1.4(4) Tenured and Term Appointments: Evaluation, Promotion and Retention). If applicable, post-tenure review (Policy 405.12.2) may be postponed for one year if PCMD is used.

2.3 Obligation to Return

The faculty member is obligated to return to university service for at least one semester following the use of PCMD. If the faculty member does not return to university service, he/she will owe the university the amount of salary released by the PCMD (10%) plus any other funding used to cover the costs of the faculty member’s teaching assignment.

2.4 Funding this Leave

(1) The faculty member receives 90% of base salary during the 16-week semester that he/she is on PCMD. The remaining 10% of the faculty member’s salary shall remain in the department to be used to cover the costs of the faculty member’s teaching assignment. If the cost to cover classes is over 10% of the base salary, then:

(a) The Provost Office will contribute 34% of the remaining costs to cover the wages of the teaching replacement after the faculty member’s 10% has been applied;

(b) The college will contribute 33% of the costs to cover the wages of the teaching replacement after the faculty member’s 10% has been applied; and

(c) The faculty member’s department will contribute the final 33% of what remains of the costs to cover the wages of the teaching replacement.

If any salary is received from grants or contracts, that portion must be based on actual effort performed for the award and all award requirements must be met. The university shall not be obligated to pay more than the amount of PCMD compensation that, when added to the outside source of compensation, will equal 110% of the faculty member’s full regular salary for the period of leave.

2.5 Relationship to Other Policies

(1) Family and Medical Leave Act. Parental Caregiving with Modified Duties (PCMD) under this policy will run concurrently with FMLA leave (Policy 351 Family and Medical Leave) if applicable. No intermittent leave may be used for PCMD.

(2) Pregnancy/ Short-term Disability Leave. If an eligible faculty member has short- term disability leave available, at the employee’s discretion, the employee may choose to use the pregnancy portion of this leave instead of PCMD.

(3) Sick or Annual Leave. Sick or annual leave may not be used in conjunction with PCMD.

(4) Sabbatical or Other Leave. Other leave that has been taken or is scheduled to be taken by a faculty member shall not preclude eligibility for PCMD benefits under this policy. PCMD taken under this policy shall have no bearing on eligibility for subsequent sabbatical leave for the faculty member.

2.6 Semester for PCMD

In most cases, the semester requested by the faculty member will be approved. However, when teaching assignments are unbalanced across semesters, the semester approved for PCMD will be negotiated with the department head. The leave cannot span over two semesters.

366.3 RESPONSIBIITY

Department Head or Supervisor

The department head or supervisor will be responsible for finding replacement instruction to cover the courses the faculty member using PCMD would normally have taught for the semester.

Faculty Member

An eligible faculty member should notify her/his department head of a request for PCMD as soon as possible. This notice would normally be no fewer than four months prior to the expected arrival of the child; however, it may not be possible to provide this much notice. Administrators in Library and Extension are encouraged to explore the possibilities of making this policy work in their units.

Human Resources

Human Resources will provide an application form for faculty to request the PCMD.