Guidelines for Course Release and Course Buyout
Note: This document does not reflect current official practice in the Department of Psychology. Rather, it has been drafted by the Chair and commented on by the Executive Committee as a possible approach for the department to take in dealing with course buyouts. Any departmental policy on course buyouts would need to be approved by the Department of Psychology's Faculty Council.
I. Statement of Principle
In order for the Department to meet its research, teaching, and service missions, it must be able to flexibly allocate the research, teaching and administrative efforts of individual faculty members. For example, it will sometimes be in the Department's interest to reduce a faculty member's teaching duties so that she or he might assume additional administrative responsibilities or direct a large program of research. Course buyouts (i.e., the use of externally generated grant funds to cover part of a faculty member's salary, thereby releasing funds to the Department to use for replacement teaching) and course releases (the use of the limited number of course releases provided the Department by the College to release a faculty member from teaching a course) provide the Department with flexible mechanisms for allocating faculty effort.
II. Guidelines Governing Course Buyouts and Releases
1. Course buyouts are meant to support a faculty member's scholarly activities in a way that enhances his or her scholarly productivity. In deciding whether to grant a course buyout, the Chair must consider how doing so helps to further the scholarly mission of the department.
2. The granting of a course buyout or release should not result in the dropping of a significant or required course from the curriculum. Special care needs to be taken to ensure that the Department still meets its obligations to the undergraduate and graduate curriculum when using course buyouts or releases.
3. The Chair, in consultation with the individual faculty member, will decide the specific course a faculty member buys out or is released from teaching. It is generally expected that faculty who receive a course buyout or release would still be involved in both undergraduate instruction and graduate student training. To ensure that curriculum obligations are met, before granting a buyout or release, the Chair may need to consult with faculty from the relevant area, as well August 13, 2007 termine their support.
4. Normally, faculty will be limited to a total of one course buyout or release per two-semester academic year. Exceptions would include significant administrative responsibilities (e.g., Chair, Associate Dean), and the receipt of an award that requires a greater than one course reduction in teaching load (e.g., McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, Research Development Awards).
5. Faculty are eligible for a course buyout if they receive a substantial external research grant award that involves at least 25% effort throughout the two-semester academic year. At least 12.5% of that faculty member's academic year salary must be paid by the granting agency; the remainder would be cost-shared by the College. The released funds would all revert to the Department, which would use them to hire replacement teaching. Faculty would also be eligible for course buyout, if they assumed professional obligations (e.g., journal editorship) that required at least 25% effort during the academic year, if at least 12.5% of their academic year salary was funded externally.
6. The Department receives a limited number of course releases from the College each year. The Chair uses these to provide course releases for faculty having heavy administrative or service responsibilities, and to support the research efforts of a faculty member who does not have external grant support that would qualify her or him for a course buyout.
7. As 12.5% of a faculty member's salary is likely to more than cover the costs of replacement teaching, the remaining course buyout funds should be used to further the research mission of the Department. In particular, these funds could be used to provide a course buyout for a faculty member who receives a substantial research grant from an agency that does not normally pay academic year salary (e.g., as is the case for most NSF awards). In this case, the pooled funds should be used to obtain a course buyout only if the faculty member's effort on the research project meets the 25% threshold, and only if suitable replacement teaching can be obtained.
8. Because faculty are normally allowed to buyout or be released from only one course per academic year, their total declared effort on external grant awards should not exceed a cap that reflects that they have teaching and service responsibilities in addition to their research efforts. For this reason, the cap for total declared effort on external grant awards should normally not exceed 65% during the academic year.
9. A faculty member will not be eligible for paid overload teaching (e.g., in University College) during the academic year he or she receives a course buyout.
Approved February 14, 2000