Thank you for taking the time to respond Barbara.  You are correct about the system policy, it also mirrors what A-21 says; however, “we’re not under contract in the summer so that doesn’t apply”.  Sorry if we’re paying you, I think you do need to comply with system policy. 

 

So far everyone is interpreting A-21 exactly as I do and no one has a work around, other than possibly consulting.  Amazing….that’s exactly what I’ve been saying for two weeks.  J   Of course when you aren’t telling people what they want to hear you all of a sudden become less credible.  LOL

 

Thanks again for your input, I appreciate it.

 

Kaaren

 

 

 

 

Kaaren,

 

Check your system policies—sometimes summer comp is discussed in the “extra comp” section for faculty.  I’ve worked in four different state systems and all have had system-wide policy that limits summer pay for 9-month faculty to 33.333% of the nine month base (in other words, limited to the same rate of pay during the summer as during the academic year).  Source of funds makes no difference.  If no such system policy exists, set the policy for your institution.  I would say that best practice is to not exceed normal rate of pay during the summer, regardless of source of funds. 

 

 

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

I really need some feedback on a scenario we’ve been bantering around and I would greatly appreciate your thoughts and experiences.  Here’s the scenario, we are a state institution, a 9 month appointee works on research during the summer.  Some of the research funding is Federal and some is not.  The projects are being conducted at the university and the funding is flowing through the university.  By my reading of A-21 it makes it pretty clear that we have to base the summer salary on the rate of pay received during the academic year.  Has anyone identified a method to pay more than the academic year base pay level if the work doesn’t fall into an overload situation nor does it fall under a classification that would qualify for incidental pay? 

 

What we are hearing from some faculty is that because they are not on contract during the summer that there is no ceiling on what they can be paid.  (What the market will bear is their outlook.)  I haven’t swallowed that hook yet but want to hear from my peers regarding similar experiences you may have had and if you found a work around to be legal (i.e., A-21 compliant) and make your faculty researchers happy.

 

I know an investigator could work on a consulting project and bring in additional salary but that would be separate from institutional salary and would be treated as a personal income situation for the investigator. Unless one of you have some other thoughts for how we can keep the funds in-house this is my suggested work around for salary over the academic year level of base pay.

 

Even saying there really isn’t a way around retaining the summer base pay level at that of the academic year would be helpful because it would let me know what other institutions are doing.  Thanks in advance for any crumb you can throw my way. 

 

Kaaren

 

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