No, really: paid family leave is not guaranteed to faculty at UConn
By Sarah Hird
If you read “Setting the Record Straight on UConn Paid Leave Provisions” last week in the CT Mirror, let me ask you a question: did you walk away from that article with a clear idea of what UConn’s policy is for family leave? Can you verbalize what employees are entitled to when they have a baby? I’m guessing no – because there is no guaranteed paid family leave for faculty at UConn.
In their piece, the UConn spokesperson said UConn follows all state and federal laws – which is true (as far as I can tell). This means that if you’ve worked continuously for qualifying employers/job titles for >12 months, you are eligible for FMLA, a federal policy that protects your job and health insurance for various reasons, including having a baby. Some UConn faculty get 6 or 8 weeks paid leave under this program; some do not. Therefore, paid family leave is not guaranteed to faculty at UConn.
They mentioned some faculty have six months of medical leave available to them – but what does medical leave have to do with family leave? Only people with “their own qualifying medical condition” can take medical leave. Healthy post-partum mothers, fathers, non-birthing mothers and adoptive parents are not experiencing a qualifying medical condition. Medical leave is not family leave.
They also mention the Modified Duties Policy, which states: “Of note, duty modifications do not decrease a faculty member’s responsibilities; instead, modification allows the faculty member, in conjunction with their Department Head and/or Dean, to exchange duties on a short-term basis.” New parents need time with their baby – a leave, if you will, not a “work your regular amount from home in between feedings, pediatrician visits and random bouts of sleep…if your boss approves”. Modified duties are not family leave.
Notably, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UConn used to have a better policy: “If an individual becomes a parent (whether they give birth or not), a department should release the faculty member from their teaching obligations either during the semester in which the event occurs or the following academic year semester.” Alas. That policy disappeared without warning when UConn rolled out the Modified Duties Policy.
Let’s compare this to UMass Amherst’s webpage for Time Off and Leave, under the section Parental Leave: “Eligible bargaining unit members may apply for a paid parental leave equivalent to one semester. Leave can be taken during the semester a child is born, adopted (for child under age 5), or the semester immediately preceding or following the birth or adoption.” That is clear. That is guaranteed. That is paid. That is humane.
Guaranteed paid family leave covers all employees from the moment they start. Guaranteed paid family leave pauses job responsibilities – for a reasonable (and temporary!) amount of time. For a university that values teaching and learning – some might say that reasonable amount of time is the length of a semester. And it should go without saying that a good paid family leave policy exceeds the bare legal minimum. If the best case scenario is that some employees get six weeks paid leave after expelling a whole human from their body? I’d score that an F+.
We expect excellence from our students, we expect excellence from our faculty and staff, we expect excellence from Huskies. It doesn’t seem like too much to ask for UConn to have policies that actually support that excellence, instead of forcing people to choose between spending those first precious months with their chaotic, helpless, beautiful baby and keeping the job they love that they’ve worked their whole life to get. It’s time to raise the bar and implement guaranteed, paid family leave as a contractual right for every UConn faculty member. Because right now, faculty, students, and families are suffering without it.