College of  Liberal Arts

Salary Savings Return Policy

Background of Policy

Certain external granting agencies make available to faculty funds that can be used to support a faculty member's academic/fiscal year salary.  When these funds are awarded as part of the grant funding and the faculty member charges his/her salary to the award account, salary savings is generated.  If salary savings is sufficient, a teaching release is sometimes granted.  The actual salary savings money has historically been used by the College to support replacement instruction, mandatory salary supplements for university fellowships & PRF research assistantships and other college-wide instruction and research needs.  Until July 2000, no financial incentives existed within the College of Liberal Arts to encourage faculty researchers to request funds to support their AY and/or FY salaries. At that time a “Research Incentive Program” was introduced that allowed faculty and departments to share in the distribution of the salary savings generated when their salaries were charged to externally sponsored research accounts. As of July 1, 2003, we are further improving these research incentives.    

 Program Goals/Objectives:

The goal of this program is to encourage and support research and scholarship in the College of Liberal Arts.  In addition, this program is designed to:

1. Be consistent and equally applicable across all Liberal Arts Departments.

2. Provide sufficient resources for the College to cover the cost of replacement instruction.

3. Provide a source of financial support for the PI and/or department to assist with infrastructure costs associated with departmental research programs or general S&E and travel expenses. 

4. Be easy to calculate.

  Determining Salary Savings

Salary savings are generated when a faculty member charges a portion of his/her budgeted academic year or fiscal year salary to funds they have received from an external sponsor.  

  Return of Salary Savings

The College will retain 25% of all salary savings generated and will return 75% to the departments. The returned salary savings will be distributed in accordance with each department’s salary savings return policy.  For example, if the department’s policy were to divide the savings between the department and the PI as a 50/50 split, the return would be as follows:

37.5% - Individual faculty member charging a portion of their AY/FY effort

37.5% - Department

25.0% - College

This distribution policy will remain in effect for two years from July 2003 through June 2005.  At that time the distribution will be reevaluated based on the success of the program and budget needs.

Funds will be allocated to special departmental general fund accounts (010 XXXX-71YY, where XXXX= dept. number and YY designates PI) after the PI has certified his/her effort on their Personnel Activity Report (PAR) at the end of each semester.  The following schedule will be used: 

Semester	Funds Distributed
Fall Semester   Spring Semester   Summer Semester	February   July   October

 Use of Returned Funds

Use of distributed salary savings will be in accordance with the same spending guidelines that apply to the University general fund.  Some examples of allowable expenditures include:

Summer salary (requires prior approval -- see Business Manager for assistance)

Student support

Travel (including international meetings)

Honoraria

Equipment

Supplies

Phone and data network lines

All equipment and supplies purchased will be university property.

 Additional Information

Specific questions about the program can be directed via e-mail to Thomas Berndt, Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts or Mona Holdcraft, Director of Financial Affairs, College of Liberal Arts.  Other questions can be directed to your Business Manager.  Whether other external awards (such as fellowships) qualify for this program will be considered on a case-by-case basis.  Please contact Mona Holdcraft if you have these types of awards.

Example

Professor Jones has an annual salary of $60,000.  She receives a $300,000 award from NIH.  Included in the budget are funds to support 40% of her academic year salary.  The project period is July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004. 

Professor Jones contacts the department head and they agree that Professor Jones will devote 40% effort to this project for the year. 

At the end of the Fall Semester Professor Jones completes her PAR and certifies the salary distribution at 40% organized research on the grant and 60% under instruction or departmental research on general funds. 

Salary savings for the Fall Semester is calculated - $60,000/10*5*.40 =  $12,000

Distribution for the Fall  (if the department policy is 50/50 split between department and PI)

PI	37.5%	$  4,500
Department	37.5%	$  4,500
College	25.0%	$  3,000
Total	100.0%	$12,000

The funds for the PI and Department will be made available for expenditure in the special accounts. 

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