Office of the Provost & Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Parenthood

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Family and Medical Leave for Parenthood

The Family and Medical Leave (FML) policy for faculty provides full pay to tenured, tenure-track, and term faculty for approved leaves for a period of up to 12 weeks (or 26 weeks for the care of a family member disabled while on active duty in the armed services) or its equivalent during any 12-month period. If you are a faculty member who gives birth to a child and/or serves as a primary caregiver of the child within twelve months of the child’s birth or adoption, you are eligible for FML.

Note: This page is about FML for parenthood. Other pages have information about FML for family care and personal illness or disability. See also the FML FAQ or the FML Policy.

There are three types of FML available to faculty:

  • Continuous (full-time) FML means that you may take (up to) 12 weeks of consecutive leave, during which time you will not work. Since a semester is 16 weeks long, you will work for three consecutive weeks to complete the semester. For example, if you are expecting to have a child early in the Spring semester, you might take 12 weeks of FML at the beginning of the semester and work for 3 weeks at the end.

  • Reduced work schedule leave means that you are working part-time during a semester, and your periods of working and not working are interspersed throughout your FML.  You do not need to specify which days you will work or not work, but you need to indicate how many hours or days per week, on average, you will work. Since FML provides up to 12 weeks of leave in a 16-week semester, you must work at least 1.25 days per week, on average, throughout the semester (1.25 days per week x 16 weeks = 20 days, or 4 work weeks). Typical work responsibilities that faculty members opt to retain during a reduced-work-schedule FML include supervising graduate students, conducting research, preparing for future courses, editorial or refereeing work, or participating in tenure or other faculty reviews.

  • Intermittent leave is suitable when you are working full-time but need to take periods of leave during the semester on an ad hoc basis. For example, you may need to take a leave day(s) if you are a primary caregiver on a certain day of the week, which may vary week to week. This type of leave is less common for parenthood (but is common for other types of FML).

Regardless of which type of FML you choose, you will need to work with your Department Chair to determine what work you will do during the semester (e.g., supervising students) and what work you wish to be released from (e.g., teaching, serving on committees). You will document this plan in the FML Academic Planning Form (see below).

If needed and requested by the Dean, the Provost’s office will provide up to $7,500 to the department for each FML leave to help defray the cost of adjunct salaries for course replacement.

For more details, please see the FML FAQ or the FML Policy.

How to Request FML

Two forms are required in order to request FML:

  • Human Resources FML Request Form (plus, in some cases, other required certification), submitted to HR

  • Provost’s office FML Academic Planning Form, submitted to your Department Chair, who will forward it to the Dean (this form assists the department and college in ensuring continuity of instruction and other job responsibilities during your leave)

We encourage you to discuss your FML request with your Department Chair as early as you are able and feel comfortable doing so. This helps your Chair plan for your absence and helps you develop a work plan that you feel comfortable with. 

The Deputy Provost for Faculty Affairs is available to answer questions or discuss the process.

Tenure-Clock Extension for Parenthood

If you are an untenured, tenure-track faculty member (Assistant or Associate Professor) and you become the parent of a child by birth or adoption, you are automatically eligible for a one-year extension of your probationary period (i.e., your tenure clock). Your clock will be extended by one year for each leave taken for the birth or adoption of a child, with a limit of two one-year extensions. You may decline the extension if you wish. Moreover, this provision is implemented flexibly, so that you may accept the extension at any time before your tenure package is sent to external evaluators for review.

You may also request a one-year tenure-clock extension if, at the start of your tenure-track position, you have a child or children under six years old. In this case, your first appointment will be extended (i.e., your reappointment and subsequent reviews will be postponed) by up to one year. If you have more than one child under age six when hired, you may take a second one-year extension during your second appointment (i.e., after your reappointment).

You have the option to decline these extension(s). Regardless of whether you take an extension, and how many, you will be evaluated for tenure and other reviews using the same academic standards as candidates who did not receive extensions. The maximum length of the probationary period is 8 years (with an exception due to the COVID extension).

See R&P 2.2.5.7 or the page on Tenure Clock Extensions for more information.

Lehigh Sloan Research Grants

If you are a pre-tenure faculty member and you take FML for parenthood or to care for a family member, you are eligible for a Lehigh Sloan research grant. Please visit the Sloan Research Grant page for more information.

Child Care

Bright Horizons at Lehigh serves Lehigh University faculty, staff, and students. The center is located on Lehigh’s Goodman Campus, at 5 Duh Drive, Bethlehem, PA.