![\"Austin](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Austin-Peay-State-University-now-offering-six-weeks-of-Paid-Parental-Leave-480x320.jpg\" "\\"Austin")
<\/a>Austin Peay State University is only the second university in Tennessee to offer Paid Parental Leave. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember I was in a meeting with department chairs, and I was like, \u2018Why don\u2019t we have maternity leave?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Austin Peay professors receive nine days of sick leave a year and no annual leave, so if they wanted to take parental leave after having a child, under the Family and Medical Leave Act, it was unpaid. That was pretty much the standard at universities across the state, but in 2016, during a meeting with APSU Provost Rex Gandy, Cannon asked how APSU could better support families.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got it,\u201d Cannon said. \u201cDr. Gandy was such a champion of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The provost put her in charge of finding a solution. A few weeks later, Cannon and Dr. Andrea Spofford, associate professor of English, formed a task force, and now Austin Peay has one of the most ambitious parental leave policies in the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took over two years for us to see this change; there was never more than a week during that two-year time period we weren\u2019t working on this proposal, be it conducting research, making calls, attending meetings or brainstorming policy,\u201d Spofford said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked to peer institutions, attorneys, administrators and faculty and staff across campus. From initial task force to final policy, we approached this proposal from every angle. From the very beginning we had the support of chairs, deans, the provost, and now the president\u2014without this support paid parental leave would not have been possible,\u201d stated Spofford.<\/p>\n
The policy, which will begin for children born or adopted after January 2nd, 2019, provides six weeks of paid parental leave \u201cto give parents additional flexibility to adjust to their new family situation and balance their professional obligations.\u201d Parental leave is available to APSU faculty and staff who are biological or adoptive parents and who have been continuously employed by the University for at least 12 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just had my first baby and while leave wasn\u2019t yet in place when she was born, both Provost Gandy\u2019s and President (Alisa) White\u2019s willingness to support paid parental leave made me feel like I didn\u2019t have to choose between having a child and my career,\u201d Spofford said. \u201cI want to work somewhere that values its employees, and Austin Peay is proving it does just that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Austin Peay State University is only the second university in Tennessee to offer such robust parental leave. Last year, the University of Memphis unveiled a similar policy, offering six weeks of parental leave.<\/p>\n
Cannon credits APSU\u2019s president with making the new policy a reality. One day last year, when it seemed as if the process was taking too long, White pulled Cannon aside and said, \u201cI want this to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident White was a champion for parental leave, and it was really her will to make this happen that saw it through,\u201d Cannon said. \u201cI don\u2019t have any power or a budget. I was just an annoying, persistent voice. It\u2019s up to a good leader to listen to that, and it says something about our campus climate that we have leaders who are concerned and care and are willing to make the right thing happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Information on APSU\u2019s parental leave policy is available at www.apsu.edu\/policy\/5s_personnel_policies\/5034-paid-parental-leave.php<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin Peay State University (APSU) Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University associate professor of English Dr. Mercy Cannon has a friendly, positive demeanor, but in the winter of 2014, she admits life became a bit of a challenge. That January, less than a month after giving birth to her second child, she returned to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[22711,21291,23,5762,4402,11642,262,825,32341,7853,32342,25204,1758,8263],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4xGYI-26083","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26083"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26093,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26083\/revisions\/26093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Austin](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-Peay-State-University-APSU.jpg\" "\\"Austin")
Clarksville, TN<\/strong> – Austin Peay State University associate professor of English Dr. Mercy Cannon has a friendly, positive demeanor, but in the winter of 2014, she admits life became a bit of a challenge.<\/p>\n![\"Austin](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Austin-Peay-State-University-now-offering-six-weeks-of-Paid-Parental-Leave.jpg\" "\\"Austin")
<\/a>