Vacation

Eligibility

Regular full-time and part-time staff employees in positions budgeted for 1000 hours per year are eligible for vacation leave accruals.

Accruals

Effective January 1, 2022: As another outcome of our review of benefits, the college is changing the vacation accrual for hourly (non-exempt) staff to four weeks per year.  Effective the first pay period in January 2022, all full-time hourly employees will accrue vacation at four weeks per year, and part-time hourly employees will accrue at a prorated amount of that same schedule. This change will affect vacation accruals going forward from the first payroll in 2022, which begins on December 26, 2021. It will not change current vacation accrual banks.

Exempt (salaried) and Hourly (non-exempt) Employees

Vacation Accruals for full-time exempt (salaried) and hourly (non-exempt) employees- accrue 20 days vacation per year. The accrual for each completed pay period is .77 days per pay period or for each month of service is 1.67 days/month.  Part-time employees will accrue at a prorated amount of the above schedule.

Example: 40 Hour Work Week

Vacation is accrued per pay period. Employees are eligible to request all or part of the vacation time accrued after it is earned.

Employees do not accrue vacation during periods of leave without pay, or during Worker's Compensation, Paid Parental Leave or unpaid FMLA or Short-Term Disability Leave. In other words, the above accrual rates assume the employee works his or her full work week (for example 40 hours per week, 30 hours per week, etc.).

Vacation and sick leave are considered time off with pay and will be added to hours worked to determine vacation accruals. Overtime and time worked in addition to regular budgeted work week hours will not increase vacation accruals.

Maximum Vacation Balance

Because the college believes that individuals should take vacation for their own welfare, accrued vacation is limited to a maximum of two (2) times the employee's annual accrual. Any vacation accrual over this limit will be lost.

Scheduling Vacation

Although the college seeks to schedule vacations at the times sought by staff members, it is not always possible to do so and accommodate the department's work cycle. Arrangements to take vacation must be made with the supervisor prior to use. Due to specific operational needs, some college departments may adopt specific guidelines for requesting and scheduling vacation (for example a department may adopt a guideline requesting two weeks prior notification and approval for normal vacation requests). Any staff member who believes that he or she has been unfairly prevented from taking vacation should discuss the issue with the second level supervisor or with Human Resources. Supervisors should counsel staff members to take advantage of the vacation benefit.

Recording Vacation Leave for Non-Exempt (hourly) Employees​

Non-exempt (hourly) employees should record vacation leave through Time & Absences in Oracle. 

​Recording Vacation Leave for Exempt (salaried) Employees​​

Salaried employees should record days of vacation leave in half day increments through Time & Absences in Oracle at least biweekly. Failure to record vacation days may negatively impact an employee's leave accruals and payout at termination and is subject to disciplinary action for the​ employee and the supervisor.

Payout at Termination

With the exception of senior staff who joined the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) after October 1, 2023, employees voluntarily leaving regular college employment will be paid for any unused vacation accruals (but never exceeding two times the annual accrual), subject to the following notice provisions. Employees must work a notice period of 2 weeks for non-exempt (hourly) paid employees and 30 days for exempt (salaried) employees. No unscheduled vacations are permitted during the notice period. All leave reports must be completed and approved on time each month for an employee to receive the vacation payout. Effective 12/24/2023, no vacation will accrue during pay period that includes the employee’s final day of employment.  Employees whose employment is terminated by the college will not be paid for any unused vacation accruals.

Members of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) hired after October 1, 2023, will not receive pay out of accrued vacation leave at termination of employment.  An employee hired on or before October 1, 2023 but promoted to the Senior Leadership Team after October 1, 2023, will receive vacation payout at the time of promotion to SLT, but will not receive any vacation payout for vacation accrued during service on the SLT. 

Should a staff member who joined SLT after October 1, 2023, later leave the SLT but stay with the college in a different staff position, the vacation accrual would be reset to zero.  The staff employee would begin a new vacation accrual in the new position that was not part of SLT, and the unused balance of that new accrual would be paid at termination, in keeping with this policy.

The vacation accrual of an employee leaving the SLT to return to the faculty would be reset to zero and, as faculty do not accrue vacation, no new accrual would begin for the faculty position.

Exception for Exempt Coaches in Athletics

Due to the fact that most exempt coaches in athletics work irregular hours, including nights and weekends and extensive travel for matches and recruiting, the Athletics department has a departmental vacation policy that differs from the standard Davidson College vacation policy.

Exempt (salaried) coaches in Athletics will accrue vacation days at the rate of 3 weeks per year. Like other exempt Davidson College employees, exempt coaches in Athletics are also required to report their vacation days through Time & Absences in Oracle at least biweekly. Exempt coaches in Athletics are allowed to roll over vacation up to a maximum accrual of 6 weeks of vacation. Payout of accrued vacation for employees leaving college employment will be processed as for all other college employees.

This policy allows the employees flexibility to run athletics camps in the summer without being required to use vacation to cover those days.

This policy does not apply to non-exempt (hourly) employees in the Athletics department or exempt (salaried) employees in Athletics who are not coaches. Vacations for non-coaches will be according to the standard Davidson College vacation policy.

Questions regarding this policy should be directed to Human Resources at 704-894-2213.