UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Beginning July 1, all full-time Penn State faculty with newborn or adopted children, or who are newly appointed as a legal guardian of a child/children, will be eligible for at least six weeks of paid parental leave under an updated University policy.
Under the newly revised policy HRG18, in addition to the paid parental leave, a faculty member also has the option to either take a leave of absence without pay for the rest of the semester or be relieved of all classroom and classroom-related teaching responsibilities (but still pursuing other appropriate non-classroom work such as scholarly research, mentorship or student advising) at full pay for the rest of the semester. The option to be relieved from teaching responsibilities for the rest of the semester is extended to non-tenure-line faculty under the revised policy; previously, it was available only to tenure-line or tenured faculty.
The revised HRG18 also accounts for instances where two parents are qualifying faculty members or where one parent is a qualifying faculty member, and another parent is a staff member.
The updates to HRG18 come out of a collaborative process involving the Penn State Faculty Senate, Penn State Human Resources, the Office of General Counsel and the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. Following a process of research, benchmarking and collaborative discussion with stakeholders and administrators across the University, the senate passed an advisory report in April 2021 that made recommendations to better clarify the policy and rectify differences between leave offered to tenure-line and non-tenure line faculty, as well as differences between faculty who become parents through birth and faculty who become parents through adoption. This report helped to inform the development of the updated HRG18 policy.
“This is an example of how shared governance can help both the faculty and the University administration to problem-solve cooperatively, productively and for the benefit of our community,” said Denise Costanzo, who served as vice-chair of the senate’s Faculty Benefits Committee, which helped develop the recommendations. “Having that support from the administration was fantastic, and based on the benchmarking we’ve done, we believe that this positions Penn State as a leader in how we are supporting our colleagues who are starting families, in whatever way they choose.”
In addition to the updates for faculty, Penn State Human Resources has announced revisions to policy HR106, which was originally introduced in 2020 and details paid parental leave for full-time benefits-eligible staff and academic employees who accrue vacation and are ineligible for leave under HRG18. With this update, starting on July 1, eligible staff members will qualify to claim parental leave if they have been with the University for six months. Previously, staff members were required to have been in their position for at least one year to qualify for paid parental leave. This update brings the waiting period for staff in line with the policy for faculty.
The latest update to the staff parental leave policy builds on the previous version of HR106 introduced in 2020, which established four consecutive weeks of salary continuation for eligible parents. As laid out in the policy, staff are allotted four weeks of parental leave in addition to earned vacation and sick leave time, which faculty members do not accrue.
“We’re happy to provide our faculty and our staff this valuable time to bond with their new children, which can have a tremendous impact on the well-being of the family,” said Jennifer Wilkes, interim vice president for Human Resources. “Over the past few years, Penn State has been undergoing a process to review various policies, and we were happy to work with the Faculty Senate and the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs on updating HRG18. These latest updates build on this comprehensive review of our policies, align our paid parental leave practices across the University and continue Penn State’s efforts to retain high-quality faculty and staff while providing benefits that improve quality of life for our employees and their families.”
Employees who are covered by a collective bargaining agreement are subject to the terms of their agreement, rather than policy HRG18 or HR106. The revised policies also do not include Penn State Health employees, who are covered under separate human resources policies within Penn State Health.
More information can be found on the policy pages for HRG18 and HR106, which will be updated when the new revisions take effect on July 1.