The UNC system's Board of Governors will probably approve changes this week to a policy that gives campus chancellors a golden parachute of sorts when they leave their leadership roles.

Board members have spent months tinkering with the current policy on administrative leaves, which has traditionally granted chancellors - and the university system president - a one-year "research leave' at full pay after they step down.

A board committee will discuss the issue Thursday and the full board will likely vote on the policy changes Friday.

The board committee will soon begin revising a similar policy related to other top administrators like vice chancellors and provosts.

The board's actions follow reports in The News & Observer that showed the policies have, at times, been abused. Over the past five years, the universities have paid a combined $8 million to 117 administrators on leaves.

One change: the policy will be scaled back to a six-month leave, but will give the system president the discretion to offer more than that amount of time if it is suitable.

"The president is the one doing the negotiating," said Hannah Gage, the board's chairwoman. "If he needed that, the board felt comfortable giving him that latitude."

Another big change is some new accountability. Under current policy, chancellors who have left their posts have enjoyed their one-year leaves without having to answer to any supervisor or produce any work.

Under the new policy, they would have to submit a work plan for the time off, and at the end, provide a summary report of what they did to prepare themselves to return to the faculty.

And third, these former chancellors would no longer receive the same pay as they did while leading their campuses. They will receive a faculty salary on par with salaries of their colleagues who hold comparable rank with similar levels of experience.

This week, the UNC system's Board of Governors will consider a policy change that will significantly curtail the research leaves that the system president and campus chancellors have traditionally received.

The change follows several months of discussion prompted at least in part by a News & Observer examination of the current leave policy, under which the university system granted leaves and paid out $8 million over the last five years to 117 administrators.

The policy has allowed senior administrators with five years of service a research leave of up to one year the the same salary they earned in that administrative post. Under the changes proposed by UNC President Erskine Bowles, those leaves will be limited to six months at a salary level commensurate with those in the academic department where the employee would return to.