Inside Higher Ed:  Sabbaticals on Leave, by Jack Stripling:

It is perhaps no surprise that something that sounds as good as a sabbatical is now viewed in some quarters as a luxury these troubled times cannot abide. Several college leaders have announced in recent months that they will curtail or suspend sabbaticals altogether next year, opening a debate about whether granting research-intensive leave and professional development time is practical when colleges are laying off faculty or freezing hiring. …

Some campuses are stopping short of an outright moratorium or formal curtailment of sabbaticals, opting instead to simply give the strong suggestion that there’s a higher standard now for granting leave from teaching. The University of Toledo’s provost has asked deans, for instance, to be more conservative about granting sabbaticals because the teaching burden is greater now that faculty hiring is slowing down.

If there’s a trend toward curtailing sabbaticals during the economic downturn, its full impact is unclear. The American Association of University Professors does not track sabbatical numbers across its membership. The impact on faculty at individual institutions, however, is beginning to come to light. At the University of Georgia, for instance, a new level of scrutiny for “leaves of absence with pay" — Georgia's equivalent of a sabbatical — has resulted in a major shift. The university approved just nine applications for paid leave this year, which is a third or a quarter of the normal number. As for what the future holds at Georgia, Provost Arnett C. Mace indicated the conservative approach is likely to continue. “We are not totally suspending professional development leave,” Mace said in a statement through Georgia’s press office. “But we will be very discriminating given the financial condition within the University of Georgia.”