FAMILY MATTERS
Work-Life Resources and
Family Friendly Policies for Faculty
The University of Texas
at Austin
believes an environment of excellence is synonymous with
an environment of wellness, and that wellness starts with balance. We are deeply committed to
creating a supportive and productive environment that allows our faculty opportunities to
maintain a healthy balance between their professional and personal lives.
The University has numerous policies, services and resources to support our faculty and their
families. Whether you need time to care for an infant or child, help to find a job for a spouse
or partner, flexibility to meet the ever changing needs of your family or resources that connect
and inspire you, you can know that we are here to help. While no one policy can meet every individual
need, there are multiple ways to address different situations.
As President and Provost, we fully endorse family friendly policies, and we assure you that their use
in no way compromises opportunities for advancement. We encourage you to review our new Web site to
familiarize yourself with our work-life policies, the benefits they provide and how they can help
you—and your family.
William Powers, Jr., President
Download Brochure
Steven W. Leslie, Provost
The University of Texas at Austin provides opportunities for you to attain work-life balance while
advancing excellence in teaching, research and service. Listed below are some examples of the policies
and resources available to faculty. Contact the Office of the Provost, your college/school or your
department chair for more information about these and other opportunities.
Child Care
Finding a place for your children while you’re at work can be a burden. To lighten your load, the University
has two campus child care centers with 374 spaces that serve children between 6 weeks to 5 years of age. A
limited number of spaces reserved for faculty recruitment and retention are allocated on a first-come,
first-served basis, and are endorsed by your dean/department chair to the Provost Office.
Tips: Because of the special nature of infant care, these spaces are in high demand. You
should apply for the waiting list as soon as your doctor ascertains your due date, or you begin the adoption
process. There is often a waiting list so apply as early as possible. The knowledgeable staff at the
University’s Child Development Center can assist you in finding other child care arrangements while you are
on the waiting list.
Hiring Dual Career Couples
We realize that in many cases your job brought not only you to The University of Texas at Austin, but also your
significant other. Whether your partner is in academia or not, we will help him or her find on-campus or local
employment. This service is not only for your partner’s and your benefit, but also for ours.
Tips: Contact your department chair or school/college to initiate the process.
Extension of Tenure-Track Probationary Period
Whether childbirth, adoption, disability, illness or other personal circumstances, life sometimes takes
a turn to keep you from achieving normal levels of productivity during your tenure-track probationary
period. Fortunately, you can apply for a probationary period extension. All professional accomplishments
achieved during the extension of the tenure track probationary period will be included in your promotion
packet, and no distinction is made during the promotion review between those who have and have not had an
extension.
Tips: Extensions are automatically granted for the reasons of childbirth and adoption.
Family and Medical Leave
The University of Texas at Austin provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid family and medical leave during a
rolling 12-month period in accordance with the Family Medical Leave Act. This leave applies to those who
have been employed by the State of Texas for at least 12 months and have worked at least 1,250 hours during
that period. Full-time, intermittent leave and reduced schedule leave is also available. Use of this leave
protects employment and provides institutional payment of your insurance benefits.
Family Medical Leave is available to deal with your serious health condition, the birth and care of your child,
adoption or foster care placement, or care of your spouse, child or parent who has a serious health condition.
It also benefits those in military service and their families (26 weeks of coverage).
Tips: When possible, give your department chair/supervisor 30 days advance notice; if this is
not possible, give notice within two days after you learn of the need for leave.
Modified Instructional Duties (MID)
If you are full-time faculty and have a family member who is healthy, but needs your help, Modified
Instructional Duties (MID) may offer a solution. MID enables you to take a semester off from teaching
responsibilities, while focusing on other academic and research responsibilities, and offers the
flexibility you need without putting a burden on your family or your department.
Tips: Apply to your department chair or dean during the semester prior to the one in
which the modification is needed. MID does not affect the tenure clock.
Sick Leave
Many benefits-eligible faculty are unaware that they accrue eight hours of sick leave each month. We want
you to stay well—physically and financially. You can take paid time off if you have a medical condition
that makes work hard or painful, need physical therapy or need to take care of an ill or injured family
member.
Tips: Unused sick leave hours carry forward every month.
Shirley Thompson
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Lili Qui
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Mary Rose
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UT’s family-friendly options have made a key impact on their family say
Shirley Thompson and Stephen Marshall,
both faculty in UT’s Departments of American Studies and the Warfield Center for African and African American Studies.
“We are thousands of miles away from our families and the support system they provide,” says Shirley. “These policies
and resources provided an important security net as we became parents and attempted at the same time to maintain our
place in our professions.”
Shirley opted to take Modified Instructional Duties (MID), scaling her teaching schedule back while she cared for
Solomon, born in 2005. She applied for an extension of her tenure-track probationary period at the same time. Stephen
then used MID to continue caring for their son. He was also granted an extension of the tenure-track probationary
period.
Lili Qiu, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, used the
University’s MID policy after her daughter was born in December 2007. The flexibility of the policy enabled her
to care for her newborn the following semester without the constraints of a teaching schedule and office hours
while still conducting research, completing a paper on performance optimization of wireless networks and writing
proposals for grant funding.
“This policy made it possible for us to have a child,” says Dr. Qiu, whose husband is also a faculty member
in Computer Science. “MID is a great program and has tremendously benefited me and my family.”
Mary Rose, associate professor of sociology and law, says The University of Texas
at Austin’s family-friendly policies benefit her family in multiple ways, every day.
After the birth of her second child in April 2009, Dr. Rose took the summer off and then took advantage of
Modified Instructional Duties (MID) for the fall semester. During her leave, she worked on research projects,
advised students and continued her work on the department’s executive committee (even bringing the baby to
meetings as necessary). Hiring a sitter for a few hours three days a week helped protect time for research,
but “the flexibility of the MID policy made this arrangement and my other work doable,” she says. “It was great
to have the choice to spend time with my son when he was so young.”
Being able to send her two children to The University’s Child Development Center is the biggest benefit of
all, she says. “Both my husband and I can be more productive and feel more comfortable knowing that our children
are so well taken care of.”
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