Dean Alters Rules On Faculty Leaves

Dean Rosovsky said yesterday he will suspend approval of Faculty leaves-of-absence until he is satisfied that the department involved can provide an adequate number of courses in the field.

Wallace T. MacCaffrey, chairman of the History Department, received a letter from Rosovsky yesterday asking him to draw up a chart of leave patterns for the next four years.

In the letter, Rosovsky expressed concern about a shortage of American History courses this year because three American History professors took leaves this fall.

Rosovsky said he told MacCaffrey he would "not approve leaves without seeing the chart of leaves over the next several years."

Rosovsky added he would no longer approve leaves of absence individually, but would consider such requests as a group.

MacCaffrey said he will send a copy of Rosovsky's letters to History faculty members and ask them to report their leave plans through 1984.

No Magic

MacCaffrey said Rosovsky instructed him to make sure the History Department provided "an adequate offering for student needs." MacCaffrey said that he could not quote "a magic number" that represents an adequate number of courses, but he said he interprets minimum coverage to mean "at least one course in each of the major areas of American history."

Rosovsky read his letter to the Faculty Council yesterday.

Rosovsky also told the Council he had detected an increasing pattern of abuses by the Faculty in taking short-term leaves, a spokesman for the Council said yesterday.

Professors must solicit the Dean's permission if they leave the University for more than one week, and less than one week if their absence will affect scheduling. But faculty members who leave for a week or less increasingly have failed to request approval from Rosovsky first, the spokesman said.

Rosovsky also noted that professors recently have put in requests for longer leaves, many up to three weeks, the spokesman added.

Abuses

"My impression is that faculty members are requesting longer absences," Rosovsky said yesterday.

He added he intends to bring up abuses in leave-taking at the October Faculty meeting. "We have rules and they are to be enforced." he said.