Time off - Vacation, Holiday and Reduced Schedule

RIT generally observes twelve paid holidays per year:

• New Years Day,
• Memorial Day,
• Independence Day,
• Labor Day,
• Thanksgiving Day,
• the day after Thanksgiving,
• Christmas Day, and
• four RIT-designated holidays
  • the RIT-designated holidays dates are determined annually, but are generally used to close RIT between December 25 and January 1 of each year. 

If a holiday falls on a Saturday, RIT will generally close the preceding Friday. If a holiday falls on Sunday, RIT will generally be closed on the following Monday, with the exception of the Christmas and New Year holidays. Observance of the Christmas and New Year holidays are established annually.

There are two dates each calendar year that are just before a University-designated holiday that are set as “early release closure dates.”

On early release closure dates, the university will officially close at 2:00 p.m.

The dates are set in conjunction with the approval of the holiday schedule. One of these dates will be set as the day before Thanksgiving; the other day will be the day before the first University-designated holiday in December.

Please see the Early Release Days FAQ's for additional information. 

Regular full-time and part-time staff and 12-month faculty are eligible for paid vacation.

Faculty members on contracts of less than 12 months follow Policy E4.0, Faculty Employment Policies. 

RIT’s vacation benefit is an accrual plan, which means eligible employees earn vacation during the fiscal year (July 1 – June 30). Vacation is earned during the fiscal year on a monthly basis at a rate of 1/12 the annual fiscal year vacation amount. Vacation is earned in any month in which an eligible employee is employed for 15 or more days.

The amount of vacation earned annually is based on the employee type and the employee’s length of service as outlined in the chart above.

An employee's total vacation time is based on the employee’s regularly scheduled weekly hours and scheduled months or weeks per year. Vacation is prorated for those who are scheduled to work less than 12 months per year. The monthly accrual will increase based on years of service.

Staff Employees Scheduled for Less Than 12 Months Per Fiscal Year:

Vacation will be prorated for employees who are scheduled to work for less than 12 months per fiscal year, except as outlined below for those grandfathered as of August 1, 2012. Below are examples of proration:

Example 1: a nonexempt employee eligible for 2 weeks of vacation who is scheduled to work 35 hours per week, 44 weeks per year will have 59.220 vacation hours each fiscal year.

44 weeks / 52 weeks = .846 proration factor

35 hours per week x 2 weeks of vacation = 70 hours x .846 proration factor = 59.220 annual vacation hours

Example 2: an exempt employee eligible for 3 weeks of vacation who is scheduled to work 40 hours per week,10 months per fiscal year, will have 12.5 vacation days each fiscal year.

10 months / 12 months = .833 proration factor

40 hours per week x 3 weeks of vacation = 120 hours x .833 proration factor = 99.960 hours or 12.5 days

Employees should schedule their vacation in advance and obtain supervisor/manager approval. Earned, unused vacation time will be forfeited at the end of the fiscal year except as described in the Vacation Carry-Over section below.

Nonexempt staff employees - Vacation is recorded in RIT’s time keeping system, Kronos.

Exempt staff employees and 12-month faculty - scheduled vacation can be entered in Oracle Employee Self-Service before or after taking vacation time (see manager's user guide). The employee entry will route to the exempt employee’s supervisor for approval. Check with your supervisor on the preferred timing for vacation entries.

RIT provides a vacation carry-over provision that an employee can carry over up to one-half of their annual vacation. The prior year’s carry-over from the prior fiscal year is not included in determining the amount.

The carry-over amount is based on the annual earned vacation time calculated as of July 1 of the next fiscal year (e.g., for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, the carry-over is based on the annual vacation calculated as of July 1, 2023).

If the employee has a milestone anniversary date in the next fiscal year (e.g., reach 5 years of service), the higher vacation amount will not be reflected in the one-half maximum amount. If the employee had a milestone anniversary date in the current fiscal year, the new, higher amount as of July 1 will determine the one-half amount. Any amount remaining in excess of the one-half amount will be forfeited.

Example: Regular full-time employee (40 hours per week, 12 months per year) earned 3 weeks per fiscal year (120 hours) in the current fiscal year and will in the next fiscal year (i.e., they will not reach a milestone anniversary); the employee carried over 60 hours from the prior fiscal year:

RIT uses its HR/Payroll system for reporting and tracking vacation time, employees and their supervisors/managers do not need to take any additional steps for the vacation carry over process. It is an automatic process for both exempt and nonexempt employees.

NOTE: if an exempt employee has not entered any vacation time taken, they will not have any carry-over. If they exempt employee did not take any vacation, they should make a vacation entry of 0 hours.

You can view your vacation balance information in Kronos as well as on your online or hard copy paycheck.  Please refer to the Payroll website to learn more about the vacation balance information.

The vacation carry-over is automatic; you do not need to take any action.

• To enter vacation time taken, please go to Oracle Employee Self-Service and click on My Absences (Exempt Only).  Your entry will route to your supervisor for review and approval.  There are two entry options for you
  • Enter the specific dates and hours of vacation taken during the fiscal year; OR
  • Enter a date range that starts no earlier than July 1, 2022 (or your date of hire if you were hired after July 1, 2022) with the total number of vacation hours taken to date.  Please note: you will get a warning message because you do not have the full year’s vacation available on July 1 (or your date of hire).  This is not an error, so you can submit the request.
• IMPORTANT: if you will use vacation time that will start in June and end in July, please make two entries: one entry for the June dates and a separate entry for the July dates.  This will ensure your carry-over amount is correct.
• If you used no vacation time, please make an entry for 0 hours.  You will then carry over one-half your annual earned vacation time.
• If there is no vacation time entered and approved (including a 0 hours entry), you will not have any vacation carry-over.
• If you have entered your vacation time, any remaining vacation, up to one-half your annual vacation accrual, will be automatically carried over into the next fiscal year. 
• If you need to have approved entries with dates in the past deleted from Oracle, please complete the Service Request in the RIT Service Center (RSC) portal; the request will route to your supervisor for approval and then to HR for deletion.  Please note that you can delete future dated entries.
• For helpful information on how to complete your Oracle entries, please refer to the Exempt Employees Absences User Guide.

Note: for those who used vacation time to supplement New York State Paid Family Leave (NYS PFL) this fiscal year, please do not enter this vacation time in Oracle.  The Leave Specialists in Human Resources makes these entries.  If you have specific questions about supplementing NYS PFL with vacation, please contact fmla@rit.edu.

Staff employees who were scheduled to work less than 12 months per year as of July 31, 2012 will be grandfathered and will not have prorated vacation time in the following scenarios:

• The employee remains in the grandfathered position with the same scheduled months,
• The employee remains in the grandfathered position with an increase or decrease in their scheduled months, or
• The employee changes jobs and increases their scheduled months.

If the grandfathered employee changes jobs and decreases their scheduled months or leaves employment and is later rehired into a less than 12-month position, the vacation time will be prorated.

Reduced Schedule Time is for regular exempt full-time and part-time staff who are scheduled to work at least nine months per year but less than 12 months per year. Reduced Schedule Time is separate from vacation or holiday time off and is tracked separately.

Depending on their position, eligible employees take this time off throughout the year take it in a block of time. For example, an 11-month employee may take the month of July off or could take the equivalent amount of time off throughout the year. The time off must be used within the fiscal year; the time cannot be carried over to the next fiscal year. It is recommended that an employee use this time before using vacation time.

For those hired after July 1, the Reduced Schedule Time Off hours will be prorated based on the number of months remaining in the fiscal year. If the employee is hired on or before the 15th of the month, the employee will get credit for that month; if the employee is hired on or after the 16th of the month, that month will not count in the calculation. Depending on the employee’s schedule and when they were hired after July 1st, the employee may not use any or all of the pro-rated Reduced Schedule Time Off.

Eligible employees should work with their supervisor to understand when they would use this time during the year. 

Reduced Schedule Time is tracked in Oracle Employee Self-Service using the My Absences functionality (see manager's user guide). Like vacation and sick time, employee enters their Reduced Schedule Time in Oracle and the entry routes to their supervisor for approval. 

Employees who are eligible for Reduced Scheduled Time must have it entered and approved no later than June 30 each fiscal year.