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Use your excess vacation hours before July 1

Have excess vacation hours? Leave sweeps are around the corner, so there’s no better time to use them.

What are leave sweeps?

Leave sweeps are the internal process of removing vacation hours in excess of allowed carryover limits for Faculty on 12-month appointments, University Staff and Classified Staff. The process occurs annually, guided by state and university policies.

Vacation and sick leave limits

Leave limits will vary based on your employee type: University Staff, 12-month Faculty or Classified Staff. You may maintain hours up to your limit. If your available leave hours will exceed your allowed limits, they will be removed after the July monthly payroll, so be sure to use them by June 30.

University Staff

University Staff and 12-month Faculty have a limit of 352 vacation hours with no limit on sick leave.

Classified Staff

Vacation Hours Sick hours

Maximum vacation hours are determined by length of service:
Maximum sick leave is 360 hours and does not vary by length of service. However, if you have 80 or fewer execc hours, 20%of it can be converted to vacation hours.
  • 1-5 years of service: 192 hours
  • 6-10 years of service: 240 hours
  • 11-15 years of service: 288 hours
  •  16+ years of service: 336 hours
For example, if you had 40 excess sick hours, this could be converted to 8 hours of vacation leave.

New leave policy in response to COVID-19

A recent amendment to Regent Policy 11.E.1 allows employees to request the carryover of more than the allowed 44 days (352 hours) of vacation leave through July 1, 2021, if they have been unable to take vacation due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Any and all carryover must be implemented and approved at the discretion of the president of CU System administration and each campus chancellor. This means that some campuses may allow carry over and some may not. Your campus may still be deciding whether or not to implement this policy. Check your campus HR website for guidance.

CU Boulder

CU Denver/Anschutz CU

Colorado Springs

CU System

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