We, the undersigned, express our support for the formal establishment of a semester-long sabbatical for pre-tenure tenure-track faculty across UMass Boston colleges and programs. A sabbatical provides crucial support for pre-tenure faculty to carry out research and creative activity, which is central to the tenure review process. A pre-tenure sabbatical will improve faculty recruitment and retention. Colleagues at our sister campuses, such as UMass Lowell, benefit from pre-tenure sabbatical policies. Supporting research should be an obvious choice for a research-intensive university.

We call on the University administration to fully support its junior faculty by instituting a pre-tenure sabbatical policy.