Winter break for 2024 runs from Wednesday, Dec. 25 to Wednesday, Jan. 1. Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz announced that the campus would be granting three days of paid administrative leave over winter break.

Details of winter break leave include:

  • Campus status: During this time, all academic and administrative offices will be closed, and most faculty and staff will be away from their work and classroom duties. Areas providing essential services will remain open, and leaders of these units will determine appropriate staffing levels to ensure continued operations and service. Campus will resume regular operations on Thursday, Jan. 2.
  • Recording leave:
    • Holiday leave: Wednesday, Dec. 25, Thursday, Dec. 26 and Wednesday, Jan. 1 will be paid holiday leave.
    • Administrative leave: Friday, Dec. 27, Monday, Dec. 30 and Tuesday, Dec. 31 will be paid administrative leave days, and no personal leave is required to take those days off.
    • Faculty and staff should record the time as “Administrative Leave” for these days.
  • To maintain equity across campus, we ask that individual units not grant additional administrative leave around the holidays beyond the campus-wide days.
  • Eligibility: All employees who are eligible for holiday and vacation leave are eligible for the campuswide administrative leave days.
    • This includes faculty, research faculty and staff.
    • Employees in temporary positions, such as student hourly employees, faculty working retirees and temporary employees, are not eligible.
  • The governor’s holiday granted this year by Gov. Polis for Friday, Nov. 29 will be applied to the December administrative leave days since Boulder already grants holiday leave for the Friday after Thanksgiving.
  • Alternate admin/holiday leave: We know that some of our employees may work in roles that require them to be on campus during holidays or administrative leave days. These employees and their supervisors should work together to find alternate days (by June 30, 2025) on which our employees can use this leave based on the scheduling needs in their unit or department.

For questions, email hrmail@colorado.edu.


FAQs

Employees who had already gained approval for personal leave on Dec. 27, 30 or 31 can update their vacation request and now use administrative leave for those days when recording their time.

We recognize that some of our employees work in roles that require them to be on campus during holidays or administrative leave days.These employees and their supervisors should work together to find alternate days (by June 30, 2025) on which our employees can use this leave based on the scheduling needs in their unit or department.

Administrative leave will come from position funding. This is standard practice for admin leave granted campus-wide.This is consistent regardless of source of funding or type of position .

As part of Boulder’s leave policy, administrative leave days are generally an allowable expense on sponsored projects. If you have questions about a specific award, please reach out to your Office of Contracts and Grants (OCG) grant or contract officer.

Boulder already grants holiday leave for the Friday after Thanksgiving. The additional time granted by the governor this year will be applied to the December administrative leave days.

If the governor issues an additional governor’s holiday, that will be applied to the administrative leave days.

  • All employees who are eligible for holiday and vacation leave are eligible for the campus-wide administrative leave days.This includes faculty, research faculty and staff.
  • Employees in temporary positions, such as student hourly employees, faculty working retirees and temporary employees, are not eligible.

We ask that individual units not grant their own administrative leave around the holidays beyond the campus-wide days.Establishing consistency across campus provides an equitable experience for all staff and faculty rather than having individual units implement different practices.