Wiess School of Natural Sciences Policy
Graduate Student Time Off
Effective November 15, 2019
Full time graduate students are entitled to 10 weekdays of paid annual leave based on a 12-month appointment, for any reason, in addition to University Staff holidays. Unused days may not be carried forward year to year and do not accrue payable time upon departure. Graduate students must coordinate their vacation plans with their advisers sufficiently far in advance to avoid last-minute conflicts. Graduate students who are teaching must also coordinate their plans with their teaching supervisor or graduate chair. Students may sometimes be required to work on University Staff holidays in order to staff ongoing projects and operations; students who work on a University Staff holiday will be able to use this paid day off at another time.
Time away for professional activities (conferences, workshops, interviews, for instance) shall not count against paid annual leave.
Short absences (those anticipated to be less than one week) due to a student's illness or that of a family member should be granted upon notice to a student's supervisor, provided they are commensurate with the episode. These should not be deducted from paid annual leave.
If a graduate student cannot fulfill the duties of his or her appointment due to a medical emergency or the adoption or birth of a child, the student may be temporarily released from their academic responsibilities. Enrollment and stipend support may be continued for up to six weeks or until the appointment expires (whichever occurs first). A full description of the University short-term medical and parental release policy may be found on the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies website.
Graduate students who would like to report a deviation from this policy should talk to their department ombudsperson, their department chair or the Natural Sciences ombudsperson.