Definitions

Academic Employee 
Employee holding an academic appointment. See also Academic HR Resources.

Benefits Eligible Temporary Employee (see also Temporary Employee)
Temporary employee with at least 20 hours per week for 6 consecutive months or more of Cornell continuous service.

Bonding Leave
New York Paid Family Leave (NYPFL) offers up to 12 weeks of job protected paid leave to care for a child following birth, adoption, commencement of the adoption process, or the placement of a child with the staff member for adoption or foster care.

Casual Employee
Staff member with an appointment of less than 20 hours per week.

Catastrophic Event
Extremely severe health-related situation necessitating the staff member’s absence from work for an extended period of time. These events are the staff member’s own terminal, life threatening, or other grave illness/injury or a family member’s terminal, life threatening, or other grave illness/injury.

Child
A biological, adopted, or foster child, stepchild, a child of a domestic partner, a legal ward, or a child of a person who is standing “in loco parentis” (see definition below). (Note: for Military Family Leaves, there is no restriction to the age of the child).

Continuous Service
Uninterrupted time holding a regular or temporary benefits-eligible appointment.

Credited Service
An employee’s length of non-student benefits-eligible employment at the University, used to determine vacation accrual rates, employee service award recognition, and Cornell retirement eligibility. See full definition of credited and continuous service.

Contract Colleges
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Human Ecology, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and College of Veterinary Medicine.

Endowed
This classification refers to whether a position is part of the New York state (public) university system (i.e, such as the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences), or the privately endowed part of the university (i.e, the College of Arts and Sciences, and units such as CU Information Technology).

Equivalent Position
A position that is the same as the staff member’s former position in terms of pay, benefits, and working conditions.

Extended Bonding Leave
A leave to care for a child following birth, adoption, commencement of the adoption process, or the placement of a child with a staff member for adoption or foster care. This leave may only be taken immediately after all New York Paid Family Leave (NYPFL) entitlement is exhausted, in one continuous block of time, and all bonding leave must be completed within a year from the child's date of birth or placement.

Family Health Leave
A leave to care for a staff member's spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition. Child includes those children where the staff member is standing “in loco parentis” and those persons who were “in loco parentis” for the staff member, when the staff member was a child.

Family Leaves for Nonacademic Staff
Family leaves for nonacademic staff comprises four categories of leave: NY Paid Family Leave, extended bonding leave, family health leave, and military family leave (caregiver and exigency) (see definitions above and below).

Full Time 
A position of at least 35 hours per week. May apply to regular or temporary appointments.

Graduate Student
Graduate student who holds an assistantship as defined in University Policy 1.3, Graduate Student Assistantships, or other exempt appointment. Graduate student assistantships include teaching assistant, research assistant, graduate research assistant, and graduate assistant. Other exempt appointments include veterinary assistant and graduate teaching/research specialist (GTRS).

Indefinite Appointment 
A regular appointment without a specified ending date

Intermittent Leave
A leave taken in separate blocks of time, rather than in one continuous period, related to a single illness or injury. Under the Family Medical Leaves Act (FMLA), such leave may be taken in blocks of hours, days, or weeks. Under NY Paid Family Leave (NYPFL), such leave must be taken in full-day increments only.

In Loco Parentis
A person with day-to-day responsibilities to care for and financially support a child, or a person who had such a responsibility for the staff member when the staff member was a child. A biological or legal relationship is not necessary.

Long-Term Disability
Benefits apply after 26 weeks of temporary, total disability, and provide for 60% of lost wages, as long as the staff member remains totally disabled as determined by medical documentation.

Medical Leaves for Nonacademic Staff
Medical leaves for nonacademic staff comprises three categories of leave: workers’ compensation, short-term disability, and personal medical leave (see definitions below).

Military Caregiver Leave
Up to 26 workweeks of leave in a single 12-month period, which is allowed for a spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin to care for a covered service member of the armed forces, including a member of the National Guard or Reserves, or a veteran, who has a serious illness or injury received in the line of duty while on active duty, or that pre-existed the member’s active duty and was aggravated while in the line of duty on active duty.

Military Exigency Leave
A leave of up to 12 workweeks for employees who have a covered family member serving in either the regular armed forces, or the National Guard or the Reserves for any qualifying exigency that arises while the covered family member is on active duty or called to active duty status. Examples of qualifying exigencies include short-notice deployment; military events; childcare and school activities; financial and legal arrangements; counseling, rest and recuperation, and postdeployment activities.

Military Family Leave
Military family leave comprises two categories of leave: military caregiver leave and military exigency leave (see definitions above).

New York Paid Family Leave (NYPFL)
A New York State law requiring private employers to provide eligible employees with partially paid leave for up to a total of 12 workweeks within a 12-month period because of the birth of a child and to care for or bond with a newborn child; the placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care; the employee is needed to care for a family member with a serious health condition; the employee has a qualifying military exigency pursuant to the FMLA. In certain cases, this leave may be taken on an intermittent basis, rather than all at once, or the employee may work a part-time schedule. All leave must be taken in full days.

Parent
A biological, adoptive, or foster parent, stepparent, or an individual who stands “in loco parentis” (see definition above).

Part Time 
A position of less than 35 and more than 20 hours per week. May apply to regular or temporary appointments.

Reduced Schedule Leave
A leave schedule that reduces the staff member’s regularly scheduled number of working hours per workday or workweek.

Reasonable Accommodation
Defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Actions that may include: making existing facilities used by faculty and staff readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities; job restructuring, part-time or modified work schedules, allowing work from home or other remote location; reassignment to a vacant position, acquisition or modifications of equipment or devices, appropriate adjustment or modifications of examinations, training materials, or policies, the provision of qualified readers or interpreters, and other similar accommodations for individuals with disabilities. Defined by New York Human Rights Law (NYHRL) Action taken that permits an employee, prospective employee...with a disability to perform in a reasonable manner the activities involved in the job or occupation sought or held and include but are not limited to, provision of an accessible worksite, acquisition or modification of equipment, support services for persons with impaired hearing or vision, job restructuring and modified work schedules; provided, however that such actions do not impose undue hardship on the business, program or enterprise of the entity from which action is requested.

Regular Employee
An employee who is appointed to a non-temporary position of at least 20 hours per week with an expected duration of at least six months.

Serious Health Condition
An illness, injury, impairment, physical or mental condition that involves one of the following:

• Any period of incapacity or treatment in connection with, or consequent to, inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility
• Any period of incapacity of more than three consecutive calendar days, that also involves subsequent or continuing treatment by (or under the supervision of) a health care provider

See each program for more details.

Student Employee
A student appointed to the university's hourly payroll.

Temporary Employee (see also Benefits Eligible Temporary Employee)
An employee who is appointed to a position of at least 20 hours per week with an expected duration of less than six months.

Term Appointment 
A regular appointment with an ending date specified at the time of appointment

Transfer
Movement from one position to another.

Unit
College, department, program, research center, business service center, office, or other operating unit.

Unit Head
Individual with administrative responsibility for the unit.

University Leave of Absence
A leave of 1 year (the maximum allowable leave) but greater than 6 months, which is considered a voluntary resignation. During the leave period, the employees’ positions are not held for their return.

Workers' Compensation 
Benefits provided to university employees for injuries or illnesses arising out of and in the course of employment.