The Value of Sabbatical

A senior colleague recently remarked that it must be so distracting for me to be at a university for my sabbatical. This comment was made to another colleague of ours who is of more recent vintage.

Younger colleague (YC) was appropriately shocked by his (SC's) comment. She (YC) asked what he meant. SC said all the group meetings and seminars must be distracting! YC set him straight, but she and I both found the attitude so odd. It is also not clear that SC was convinced.

To provide some context: my college is your standard small regional liberal arts college - sabbatical U is an R1 with fabulous research support. Obviously, the context is important here. At SLAC, I have a relatively high teaching load. This is typically something like 3 lectures 2 labs per semester. The exact lecture/lab ratio varies somewhat, as does the load between terms within but this is a good approximation. We have almost no tech support, so lab prep is also faculty responsibility. Research, then, takes a back seat to teaching during the academic year. While some time can be carved out for ongoing research, the truth is that the majority of this is done in the summer. For me, it is very difficult to initiate new projects in the small amount of time available in the summer.

Here's what I've found to be the true value of a sabbatical leave for me:

1. Exposure to new ideas
   
   Seminars and group meetings have been excellent opportunities to hear about what is going on in my subfield. We have only very sporadic research seminars at my SLAC. These are graduate school recruiting seminars and are rarely related to my subfield of study. At Sabbatical U, with frequent colloquiums and seminar series, there is no problem finding something relevant to attend. In fact, Sabbatical U has a biweekly interdisciplinary seminar series in my sub-sub-subfield. This series is narrowly enough defined that I'm sure it would be of little interest outside the target audience. In fact, the title of the series made YC laugh when she heard it. However, it is directly relevant to my research.
   
   Most seminars I've attended have given me at least one idea to use in research or teaching. So I guess they are distracting, but in a good way.
   
   I also have a budding collaboration with a seminar speaker. Though this was not originally in my plans, it has set me off in a new and exciting research direction. This kind of serendipity is priceless.
   
   
2. Time to read, talk, listen and discuss
   
   Working with people in the same research area has been a great way to learn new techniques, consider new approaches and get excited about science again. This is perhaps a no-brainer, but coming back after being out of the environment so long makes the contrast obvious. Sure, at my college we may discuss current literature in seminars occasionally, but these discussions are almost never relevant to my research. On the other hand, papers discussed in group meetings at Sabbatical U. usually are. Being in close proximity to other researchers allows me to "think out loud" and try out new ideas, and gives me immediate feedback and often very helpful advice. Having more time to devote to reading the literature has also been a luxury.
   
   
3. Time to think
   
   This is perhaps the most important thing for me. Having no teaching responsibilities this semester beyond picking textbooks and similar administrative tasks for the Fall has left me with much more time on my hands. Of course, this gives me a chance to actually make progress on the projects I am working on. However, the focused time to think - really think - about new ideas and directions has been the most refreshing thing. Sure, sometimes people get good ideas as epiphanies that just come to them. But, it seems that ideas flow much more freely for me when my brain is not focused on, say, my class prep for tomorrow. Instead, my brain has time to synthesize ideas from the paper I read this morning, the seminar I heard yesterday and something the grad student sharing my lab said twenty minutes ago. This I was not expecting, because it is hard to imagine synthesis happening until it does.
   

Of course, YC and I both realize that some group meetings and some seminars turn out to be unproductive. But, this is the price for the productive ones. One just hopes the ratio of productive to unproductive is suitably high.

YC and I discussed SC's comment. Considering it in his context is helpful. His last two sabbaticals (at least) involved preparing something specific related to teaching. In both cases, he had a well defined project and knew 95%-100% of what he needed to to implement it. His goals did not include working out plans for research for the next X years, as mine do. In his case, he believes that going to seminars would have taken away some of what one might call his "production time."

In my case, I needed time to work on research projects. I also needed to learn a few new techniques to stay current in my field. But, none of this would truly make a difference in my professional life if I don't have new research ideas that might be publishable. Thanks to my sabbatical leave, I think I do.