Faculty and Ph.D. students planning to start a family may now be able to remove some layers of stress from their lives.
On Friday, the Provost's Office announced new policies for faculty members and doctoral students who are trying to find a balance between their careers and families.
The new policies -- accommodation for childbirth and family leave of absence -- are geared toward Ph.D. students who need to take a leave from their studies to devote time to their families.
The child birth accommodation policy allows students who have just given birth to take eight weeks off and continue receiving a stipend.
The second policy -- family leave of absence -- allows both male and female students to take up to two semesters off to take care of dependents, including new children and immediate family members.
Students pursuing a master's degree are not eligible to take advantage of these policies.
These policies stem from a Graduate and Professional Student Assembly and Graduate Student Center initiative that has been in the works for over a year with the support of the Provost's Office.
An ad hoc committee led by Deputy Provost Janice Bellace also worked on the issues.
According to GAPSA chairwoman and Communications graduate student Lela Jacobsohn, planners outlined these policies after looking at peer institutions like Stanford University that have more effective child birth and leave policies than Penn previously did.
Prior to this, Bellace said, no leave policy was in place.
"There was a lot of uncertainty, and that created great stress for women who were considering having a child," she said.
She added that students often underestimate the time burden as first-time parents and that it is actually "wise for them to take a leave."
Bellace added that women may not able to finish their degree if they decide to have a baby, and she hopes to see this trend reversed as a result of the new policies.
According to Graduate Student Center Director Anita Mastroieni, many graduate students have asked her what policies pertain to family and childcare. With the new policies, Mastroieni said, the center's staff will be able to provide students with better answers.
According to Jacobsohn, this initial policy is a "first step rather than a comprehensive policy."
She said that master's degree students were not included because this might have prevented immediate administrative approval and "requires additional time and debate" since many master's students can finish their degree within one or two years.
One of the major concerns of a more inclusive policy is to make sure that master's students are able to finish their degrees in a timely manner, according to Jacobsohn.
Bellace added that GAPSA has been asked to consider pushing a policy that includes other graduate students in their agenda for next year.
The Provost's Office also revised existing policies for faculty members. One of these revisions includes a 50 percent reduction in a new parent's teaching responsibilities over the course of one academic year.
Furthermore, junior faculty members can now extend their tenure period to an additional year to take care of family responsibilities. However, in this case they will need to seek the approval from the Provost's Office.
The new policies and the revisions were put into effect this week.
Excused absence - The child birth accommodation policy gives Ph.D. students up to eight weeks paid leave - The family leave of absence policy allows male and female students to take up to two semesters off to care for dependents - The program does not extend to candidates for master's degrees
