Guidelines for the Use of Faculty Release Time
ISU College of Arts and Sciences
Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences may be released from regular teaching duties when release time is secured internally through the department or college, or through grants and contracts from outside of the college or department. University guidelines related to release time for research and other creative activities are described in the Faculty Handbook. The following guidelines describe what may be expected as cost recovery to departments in the College of Arts and Sciences when a faculty member must be released from all or part of regular teaching duties in order to take on duties outside normal expectations. College guidelines for release time pertain to both internally and externally funded faculty replacement costs. Faculty who anticipate release time in proposals should first study the Release Time Policy in the Research Policies and Procedures Manual.
Internally Funded Replacements
Internally funded replacements include temporary faculty for sabbatical leaves and other releases from departmental activities, such as those associated with university or college service on committees. Faculty may also receive release time for scholarly activities directly through the Office of Research, which provides replacement cost for temporary faculty.
Replacement faculty provided by and paid through the university are broadly supported by public funds from the State of Idaho. These types of replacements are covered at stipend levels established by the State Board of Education, without additional reimbursement to the department. Because such replacements are provided as part of the university operational budget, there is no direct cost recovery to departments. This applies to internal grants or funds from the following academic components or programs:
- Instructional Technology Resource Center (ITRC)
- Center for Teaching and Learning (CeTL)
- Technology Mediated Instruction Initiative (Academic Affairs and CeTL)
- Faculty Research Committee (FRC)
- University Research Committee (URC)
- Research Coordinating Council (RCC)
- College Sabbatical Leaves
- State Board of Education (SBOE)
- Humanities and Social Sciences Research Committee
- Release time for Faculty Senate Chair
Externally Funded Replacements
Externally funded support for research grants, research contracts, consulting contracts, clinical contracts, and any other forms of support from outside university education and general funds may be used to purchase faculty release time as stipulated in the budget. Budgets submitted for funding related to these activities must be approved by the department chair, the Dean of Arts and Sciences, and finally the Office of Sponsored Programs prior to submittal. A budget may include the purchase of release time at a salary level higher than replacement costs established by the university or the SBOE. The amount of release time requested in a proposal will be the amount of salary commensurate with the proportion of teaching normally required by the faculty member. Typically, this amount is 10 percent of salary for 3 credits or 3 workload units for one semester, although some departments may have different proportions of time dedicated to teaching or clinical duties.
Faculty participation in externally funded research and other creative activities improves the quality of programs at the university. Guidelines for release time cost recovery are established with the goal of enhancing the effort to improve academic programs. These guidelines are intended to provide incentives for faculty to submit grant and contract proposals that include faculty release time. They pertain only to awarded budgetary amounts that are over the actual replacement costs of temporary faculty, not to indirect cost recovery.
NOTE: Current policy dictates that regular salary that is not spent by the end of each year is placed into the College of Arts and Sciences carryover account. These funds are used to support college functions such as extra teaching assistants and new position advertisements.
Grant and contract awards that include faculty release time, and for which temporary replacement faculty are paid less than the amount awarded for the equivalent time commitment, will be available for cost recovery by the department that initiated the grant or contract. Replacement faculty must be approved by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and hired following university procedures established by the offices of Human Resources and Affirmative Action. Approval to hire replacement faculty is also required from the department chair and the dean in cases when external funds cannot provide full cost recovery at the rate of 10 percent of salary per 3-credits or 3 workload units released.
Excess amounts of cost recovery will be returned to the department that initiated the externally funded grant or contract related to the purchase of release time. These guidelines pertain to all of the following mechanisms for generating external funding:
- Research grants or contracts involving release time and obtained from any federal agency, private foundation, or other sources outside of programs administered and supported directly by the State of Idaho.
- Clinical or consulting fees established for the purpose of generating faculty release time from regular duties.
- Laboratory service fees established for the purpose of generating faculty release time from regular duties.
Department chairs decide how to reallocate returned excess amounts, which should be considered funds for instruction. Departments are expected to use these funds productively, such as for covering extra course sections or supporting graduate assistants.
Submitted by the Faculty Release Time Committee: January 21, 2003
Rick Holmer, Anthropology
Scott Hughes, Geosciences
Bill Loving, Mass Communications
Victor Joe, Psychology
Kathy Vickerman, Academic Outreach