Regents will consider 111 faculty leave assignments

State regents will consider requests for 111 professional development assignments in 2012-13 for faculty at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.

That number of requests represents 1.5 percent of the faculty at the three universities, which keeps the number of faculty leaves below the no-more-than-3-percent limit set by the Iowa Legislature in 2011.

The number of requests is an increase from the 95 professional development assignments approved for faculty this academic year, an increase of about 17 percent in the total number and the first increase in four years.

Of the 111 requests, 64 are from the UI, 29 are at ISU and 18 are at UNI.

The regents will consider the requests during a meeting Thursday; the meeting information was released Friday.

Professional development assignments give faculty time off from teaching, usually one semester but sometimes a full year, to do things such as intensive research, write a book or articles, create art, present papers, work in industry or develop grant proposals or software, officials said. Faculty must qualify for and apply through a competitive process for the assignments.

Some Republican legislators in the past have said they want to cut the faculty leaves to save money. Legislation passed in 2011 specified that through June 30, 2012, the regents should limit the number of leaves granted to not more than 3 percent of the faculty at each institution. The breakdown of the 111 leave requests would be 1.3 percent of faculty at the UI, 1.7 percent at ISU and 2.2 percent at UNI.

Replacement costs for the faculty requesting leave are estimated at $508,632 at the three universities for 2012-13, officials said.