Any moms-to-be working at a college/university?

dannie134 · April 2015

So I am just approaching 11 weeks, and am getting ready to talk to my department chair. I'm in a tenure track position at a university and there is very little support in place for maternity leave, I basically have to negotiate for whatever I can get, FMLA is the only guarantee and I have to apply for that. Anyone else going through this and willing to share their experiences?

anorthro · April 2015

I wish I could help. I'm a grad student, so we are obviously in different places, but I do know how it feels to have little support. Our university has almost no policy for graduate students, and it's very frustrating. I hope that someone else has more experience to offer!

Penguin81 · April 2015

I'm adjunct at my uni and grad student, I'm seriously just s.o.l for fall. Frankly if it were me I'd be having conversation with whatever legal services that are provided by your campus to figure out how this negotiation will go. That's not a lot of advice, but good luck!

nycqueens36 · April 2015

I have the same issue. Work at a university, only FMLA and no paid. I'm going to try to take 8 weeks and hope the holiday break gives me some wiggle room to ease back in and J-term is really quiet so things won't get back to crazy until end of January. Hoping my grad assistants can help out too.

dannie134 · April 2015

Thanks for the responses! anorthro and Penguin81 I know it's even worse for grad students potentially as there aren't a lot of options other than pausing your progress, and it all depends on your advisor. I remember the stresses of grad school and wondered how the few women in our program with kids did it, but I know they did so I'm sure you'll get through too.

nycqueens36 thanks for making me feel less alone! I'm speaking with a few colleagues with young kids in the next two days to see what others have done, I'm hoping to teach as long as possible (until late October) and then will have to take some time off, and I may have to work out a way to "make up" the credit hours to possibly keep my 9 month salary. I agree that winter break should be a huge help. I teach at a mostly undergrad university so I don't have grad students depending on me, but also less others to take over my work. It seems crazy that we have to negotiate our situation (it's like getting hired all over again)!

TheatreStar86 · April 2015

Penguin81 said:
I'm adjunct at my uni and grad student, I'm seriously just s.o.l for fall. Frankly if it were me I'd be having conversation with whatever legal services that are provided by your campus to figure out how this negotiation will go. That's not a lot of advice, but good luck!

Adjunct here, too. Just taking the fall semester as a loss. Definitely talk to other young moms to see what they did. Can you negotiate for some extra committee work instead of a class, or pick up teaching a class in the summer and/or online to spread out the load this academic year?

elissa2435 · April 2015

I work at a college. I will have to use all my sick and vacation then fmla if I want to. Luckily I saved my sick for the past 7 years but still doesn't seem like enough time. Good luck!

stephaniemsander · April 2015

I work at a university and we do get paid maternity leave and can use sick time as well.

dannie134 · April 2015

elissa2435, that is great that you have enough sick time accumulated - I only started two and a half years ago, so I think I only have something like two weeks, but I plan to use it for sure. stephaniemsander it's good to hear that at least some universities are taking care of their employees and providing paid maternity leave!

elmann1 · April 2015

I work at a university and we get maternity leave, short-term disability if needed, and we can use sick days and vacation days. Have you spoke with HR? I feel like most universities have some kind of maternal program. We just hired a tenure track assistant professor and she is entitled to maternity leave after 1 year of working with us. I'm sorry you have to negotiate but I hope they are understanding. Having a baby is really amazing and kind of a big deal!

nycqueens36 · April 2015

There is some support systems in place at the university through HR for the working parent--emergency childcare, child care savings plans, pumping rooms --just not leave really. No one in my department has young children--it's nice you can get some perspective about what others have done. I'm really just hoping it doesn't mess up our health coverage--I'll take the pay hit but not that and having to pay full on insurance or something crazy. I'm 12 weeks this Saturday so I'm starting to have some conversations this week to figure out exactly where we stand. I'm really trying not to stress about it too much as this is happening and they won't fire me but hoping it doesn't make a crazy impact (I also picture myself, baby in a wrap snuggled to my body, coming in after 3 or 4 weeks a couple of times at least---hoping for a quiet baby

)

Penguin81 · April 2015

TheatreStar86 said:

Penguin81 said:
I'm adjunct at my uni and grad student, I'm seriously just s.o.l for fall. Frankly if it were me I'd be having conversation with whatever legal services that are provided by your campus to figure out how this negotiation will go. That's not a lot of advice, but good luck!
Adjunct here, too. Just taking the fall semester as a loss. Definitely talk to other young moms to see what they did. Can you negotiate for some extra committee work instead of a class, or pick up teaching a class in the summer and/or online to spread out the load this academic year?

I'll end up probably making it up over the spring and summer of 2016, plus picking up an online or two. I was in the same position in 2010 when I had my first.

dannie134 · April 2015

@elmann1 I just spoke with HR today, they mostly confirmed what I knew - the only official policy is to use FMLA along with sick days, although I will have more of those than I realized so that may help. I can talk to someone in the Provost's office about getting duties "reassigned" which seems vague, but I may be able to do other types of service to make up for lost time teaching. I set up a meeting with my department chair tomorrow, should be interesting since our department is already having a hard time finding enough adjuncts to cover all of the intro level classes, so I know it won't be easy to get "redirected" but it's worth a try, right? I may also see if I can teach any of my classes as half-semester accelerated classes to give me more time at home. We'll see. Really hoping this doesn't affect my chances of getting tenure, but I knew the risks going in and want to be a family with children so I'll deal with the consequences as they come.

Want a personalized experience?

Any moms-to-be working at a college/university?

Re: Any moms-to-be working at a college/university?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards