Materials linked from the May 8, 2013 Budgets & Fiscal Planning Committee agenda. Summary of College Policies/Practices Regarding Use of Salary Savings and Returned Overhead Results from an informal survey of College and Business Center administrators, with responses effective as of April 1, 2013. Compiled by Steve Tesch and Roger Admiral, College of Forestry. College of Agricultural Sciences Bill Boggess Jack Breen College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Salary saving on grants. Returned overhead. When a T/TT faculty member puts salary on a grant, do you have an explicit college policy about who benefits from the savings? I expect that for 9‐month or partial FTE appointments, it is likely all grant‐related salary goes for that purpose. What about after summer, etc. is satisfied? How do you distribute overhead returned to the college with departments/schools, faculty, etc.? Salary savings stay in the unit to support research and instructional programs. Units make their own distribution decisions. Some keep it all at the department; some keep the OPE and give the salary to the PI; some give it all to the PI. Faculty members do not receive direct monetary salary benefits. With respect to ROH, CAS currently retains 10% – although we are considering whether or not we need to increase this percentage – and 90% is returned to the unit. Each unit decides how to distribute their 90%. Some keep it all at the department; some give it all to the PIs. This varies widely across units. Faculty who do not use all budgeted college support (E&G funds in instruction) during any portion of the year are allowed to use that portion later within the fiscal year, but they can't carry it over year to year. ROH goes to the Dean. It is used to cover faculty salary costs for research, support research infrastructure (both facilities and administrative), provide matching funds, and support for other activities related to the research enterprise. Aviva Rivera College of Education Mark Johnson ROH is held centrally by the Dean. Buyout savings usually go to the faculty member’s development fund. However, the distribution may be negotiated based on the amount of prior savings the faculty member currently has banked in their development fund. College of Engineering James Lundy Luke McIlvenny College of Forestry Steve Tesch Roger Admiral College of Liberal Arts The college does not impose a uniform policy and the COE Schools have several models for salary savings. In the primary one, the faculty member gets the salary and the school gets the OPE. Some schools give the faculty member both salary and OPE; others give them salary only, but cover the OPE if used in the summer, thus saving the health care OPE. The buy‐out dollars are used to cover the instruction and “other activities” of the unit. In most circumstances, the faculty member does not receive direct monetary benefit. Twenty percent of the ROH is held at the college to help cover cost‐
share, research match requests, etc. In most cases, the remaining 80% is distributed 65% to the unit/school, and 15% to the PI. In some cases, a research center/cluster receives 40% of the remaining 80%, the unit/school receives 25%, and the PI receives 15%. The college currently retains all ROH for support of the essential Salary savings policy varies among departments. Nine‐month and 0.75 FTE faculty retain all salary/OPE up to 1.0 FTE or summer salary budget. New Dean is considering alternative approaches. is covered. After that, the most common approach is to split savings, with faculty keeping the salary and the department keeping the OPE. Policy is under review for clarification and consistency with new Dean. Buy‐out savings are negotiated and either go to the department to cover course buy‐out, or they (or a portion thereof) may go to the faculty member for supporting a GTA or other workers. Currently, the department gets 100% of the ROH. Mark Johnson College of Pharmacy Mark Leid Tom Fenske Faculty keep 100% of salary (and OPE) generated from grants/contracts up to 25% of their salary. This allows for 9‐month faculty to pay themselves up to the 12‐month level. For 12‐month faculty these dollars (their state salary) are recovered in a state account and they have discretionary power to spend that money. Paying graduate students from these funds is a popular use of the savings. After all faculty have generated 25% of their salary through grants/contracts, we tax them at a rate of 50%, i.e., the college keeps half of those funds, as do the faculty generating them. Faculty can ask for some of these funds back to use for emergency equipment repair, travel, etc. Like everyone, we struggle to compete with other universities that give enormous start‐up packages. While in the past it has helped to say "but you will have a 12‐month, 1.0 FTE appointment," it seems that the College of Pharmacy may be looking to alter that type of initial appointment. We do not give any returned overhead back to faculty members. It is entirely shared between the college and the department. College of Public Health and Human Services Salary savings are handled on a case‐by‐case negotiated basis only. The buy‐out dollars are used to cover the instruction needs of the unit. In most circumstances, the faculty member does not receive direct monetary benefit. Marie Harvey Tom Fenske College of Science Vince Remcho Mark Johnson College of Veterinary Medicine Tom Fenske PHHS doesn’t distribute any ROH directly back to units or PIs based on grant activity. All returned indirects are retained at the Dean’s Office and are used to support strategic investments to develop infrastructure and expand faculty research capacity. Funds are used to support various college‐wide initiatives, including: pre‐award administrative assistance (FTE of Research Program Coordinator and Grants/Contracts Coordinator), internal grants, pilot research projects, and grant‐writing workshops. The college policy is that salary savings accruing from TT faculty "buying out" time remains in the department. If a faculty member buys out part of their E&G FTE with grant money, 80% of the E&G savings goes to the department to provide replacement instruction and cover other department priorities and 20% is retained in the Department reserve fund, which is kept in the Dean’s Office. The department is expected to use the salary savings to cover all instructional needs fully and equivalently. Faculty who "buy out" their time work first with their department chair to establish a plan to cover the instructional needs; any remaining funds can be used (upon mutual agreement) to support other needs in the department. Over the last seven years, as a matter of practice, at the Chair’s discretion, 100% of the savings has gone directly into the faculty member’s development fund with the understanding that faculty members are not permitted to buy out 100% of their E&G time. As a matter of practice, the college‐wide approach over the last seven years has been to distribute 100% of ROH back to the originating units. Salary savings are kept in the Dean’s reserve fund to use for strategic investments for the College. Vet Med keeps ROH in the Dean’s reserve fund. Common uses are for internal grants that support preliminary studies with the potential for further outside funding, to fund summer research programs for students, and to purchase equipment.