Teaching Relief for Learning: application deadlines for 2023-2024

Friday, December 2, 2022

[Summary: Eligible FAS faculty members are invited to apply for Teaching Relief for Learning (TRL) for the 2023-2024 academic year. TRL provides one semester of teaching relief in order to enable faculty members to enroll in 2-3 courses offered in Yale College and/or the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Due to anticipated curricular need, we are only able to approve a very small number of faculty for TRL in 2023-2024.]

To: Full professors, senior lectors II, and senior lecturers with a primary or fully joint appointment in an FAS department or program or the MacMillan Center
cc: FAS Department and Program Chairs; FAS Dean’s Office; FAS Steering; OFAS; FAS Lead Administrators, Chair’s Assistants, and Operations Managers

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to alert you to an upcoming deadline for a program associated with the FAS Scholars as Leaders; Scholars as Learners (SAL2) initiative for which you may be eligible. 

Teaching Relief for Learning (TRL) provides one semester of teaching relief in order to enable faculty members to enroll (in a non-credit fashion, with permission of the instructor) in 2-3 courses offered in Yale College and/or the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, participating as fully as possible in activities and assignments associated with those classes. Courses may be at the undergraduate or graduate level; in a single department or across several departments; and they may pertain to subjects related to your current area of expertise, or they may allow you to study subjects farther afield. The goal of the TRL is to give you the freedom to explore new ideas and consider new approaches that will have a lasting impact on your role as a scholar, teacher, and university citizen. Additional information about the program can be found here.

Please note that, due to anticipated curricular need, we are only able to approve a very small number of faculty for TRL in 2023-2024. Interested faculty may be asked to defer their applications to the following year.

Application deadlines for a semester-long TRL for the 2023-2024 academic year are:

  • January 13, 2023: Consult with your departmental chair by Friday, January 13 to determine that you are eligible, and that your department will not be unduly impaired by your one-semester teaching relief during the 2023-24 academic year. Additional information about eligibility requirements and constraints can be found here.
  • January 20, 2023: Once you have determined eligibility, send a one-paragraph expression of intent by Friday, January 30, 2023 to sal2.fas@yale.edu. This will allow us to gauge the scale of interest for 2023-24, and begin our planning accordingly.
  • February 1, 2023: Submit a brief (one-page) statement of interest, which should include a provisional menu of proposed classes, using this webform by Wednesday, February 1, 2023.

Additional information about the application process can be found here.

If you have questions along the way, feel free to reach out to Alexandra Apolloni at sal2.fas@yale.edu.

In preparing your application, please note the following details:

  • The TRL program is open to full professors with full-time appointments in the FAS (on the ladder track) and full-time multi-year senior lecturers/senior lectors II with full-time appointments in the FAS (on the instructional track).
  • The TRL provides relief from teaching responsibilities, without loss of salary or benefits, for the whole of an academic semester. A semester spent on a TRL counts neither towards nor against accumulated time towards the faculty member’s next leave (where applicable).
  • In departments with asymmetric teaching across semesters, the TRL should be taken in the semester when the faculty member is responsible for teaching the smaller number of courses. (That is: if your teaching expectations across the academic year are 2-1, you should take your TRL in the semester when you are expected to teach 1 course.)
  • Among the courses that the faculty member teaches in their non-TRL semester should be at least one course open to undergraduates.
  • The TRL may not be taken consecutive to any other scheduled leave, whether for a partial or full semester, and whether paid or unpaid. (That is: you may not take a TRL in Fall 2023 if you are (scheduled to be) on paid or unpaid leave in Spring 2023 or Spring 2024; you may not take a TRL in Spring of 2024 if you are scheduled to be on paid or unpaid leave in Fall 2023 or Fall 2024.)

We hope that you will consider participating, either in this program or in one of the other programs in the SAL2 suite.

Best,

Tamar

Tamar Szabó Gendler
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy
Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science