Maternity Suggestions

The Bethel community would like to be joyful and supportive toward our members who are expecting to enlarge their families. Children are a blessing from God; we also admit that they require our time and energy, as well as enrich our lives. Our faculty colleagues each play distinct and important roles at Bethel, so it is not easy to replace someone. Still, we consider this a community, and it is our pleasure to create good ways to support faculty members who anticipate using Faculty Parental Leave. The following list provides some basic (but not exhaustive) suggestions for these faculty women who are giving birth. Some of these suggestions also apply to men and women who are welcoming a child through adoption, or men welcoming the birth of a child.

1. Benefits and Length of Leave: Contact the Office of People and Culture to determine what your leave benefits entail. OPC will then contact your dean and associate provost, who will issue a letter outlining the details of paid parental leave.
2. Covering Your Courses: If the birth or adoption is anticipated at the end of a term and the leave will be largely in the following term, create a basic plan for covering your regular courses. This is not solely your responsibility – work with your chair/program director, academic dean, and associate provost. Planning will vary and depend upon the time of the year that the baby is expected. In general, the following principles should be followed:

• If the person will miss only one or two classes, the other full-time faculty or TAs in the department can cover those days. Full-time faculty may not receive additional salary if they are only filling in for a lecture or two.
• If the absence will be for an extended period of time, arrangements should be made for an adjunct or a full-time person (on an overload basis) to cover the class for the semester of the leave. The faculty member’s advice and recommendations are welcomed. The administration will help departments arrange for appropriate financial remuneration for substituting faculty.  

1. Modifying Courses: If the expected arrival is late in a term, plan possible adjustments in your course so that you can comfortably manage the course or so that another person can step into the role of teaching and grading without compromising the course’s integrity. This may include earlier or later papers, more objective tests that the TAs can grade, etc.
2. Final Grades: If at all possible, you should be the one to assign final grades in a course you begin, turning in grades within the Registrar’s timeframe unless unexpected circumstances prevent this from happening. 
3. Advisees: Discuss alternative faculty advisors with your department chair and inform the Registrar’s office.
4. Physical Accommodations: During and after pregnancy it is appropriate to ask for physical accommodations that make it easier and more comfortable for you to teach. Contact your department chair for stools to sit on in the classrooms, or to arrange for classrooms nearer your office, etc. Employees can request an assigned parking spot. A note from your provider is required. For all parking arrangements, contact your academic dean to start the process.
5. Unexpected Circumstances: If health issues interfere with previous plans and arrangements, your department chair and administrators will help you create reasonable alternate arrangements.

                                                                                                                                                                                   Modified 12/5/2023, University Provost

Office of People and Culture