The University of Memphis has become the first public higher learning institution in the state of Tennessee to pass a paid parental leave policy for its faculty and staff.
The new policy will allot parents six weeks of paid leave total a year, and they can decide how to divide and use the time. For instance, if a faculty or staff member anticipates having another child in the near future, they are encouraged to only use two to three weeks for the first child. That way, they will have time left in their paid leave for the next child.
The policy’s flexibility also allows for vacation days and sick days to be layered into the parental leave so the given time can be distributed more extensively.
“Hopefully it sends a clearer message that we are committed to providing a supportive working environment that recognizes the challenges of raising a family,” M. David Rudd, president of the U of M, said. “This is one step that we can take to demonstrate that.”
The U of M Board of Trustees has endorsed the financial model and provided approval for the university to develop and implement the policy. According to Rudd, the development is underway and the board has asked for the policy to be implemented by January so it can begin in the spring semester.
“The initial motivation for the policy [came when] I was talking to one of our younger faculty members, who shared with me her experience of delivering a child, then being back in the classroom a week [later],” Rudd said. “It was a very negative experience and I thought it didn’t ring true to our values of trying to support faculty, staff, and their families—and to provide a working environment that recognizes the demands of raising and supporting a family.”
Rudd said he was unaware of the issue and the significance of the challenge before this conversation. He said something needed to change immediately, so he reached out to the faculty senate to conduct a study.
Upon finishing the study, Rudd said they began creating a policy that would address the current problems, as well as help “recruit and retain good people” going forward. Once presented to the board, the new policy had “full support” and Rudd said he believes people were as surprised as he was of the current parental leave procedures.
The policy preceding this new one demanded that faculty and staff use vacation days and sick days for parental leave, and any amount of time off after those days expired would be unpaid.
This made it almost financially impossible for parents to take more than a few days off following childbirth.
“[It] was very important,” Rudd said. “I don’t know that it’s fair to ask people to exhaust their vacation time because they decided to have a family.”
He also hopes that other public universities in the state will follow the U of M’s lead. This kind of policy is common practice in the corporate world and private university settings, and Rudd said it is more unusual for an organization to not have a paid parental leave policy like this one in place.
“Part of the challenge in life today is when both family members have to work, it makes it very difficult [on them],” Rudd said. “Those early weeks and months after . . . are critical for not only the parents, but the children, so this provides a chance to be supportive.”
