Hi Rene,
I understand the concept of a fully-burdened rate. In fact, a fully-burdened rate is what is used to bill the sponsors for T&M contracts. The issue I am having is that the fully-burdened rate was proposed and
agreed on when the University used a quarter system, but now we have switched to a semester system. I will give an example to try and lay out the problem. Assume an academic faculty member makes $90K for the academic year, and that the benefit rate is 25%
with an F&A rate is 50%. This would make the fully-burdened cost for this academic faculty member $168,750/AY. Under the quarter system we assumed a 1560 hour academic year (2080 * ¾). This would make the fully-burdened rate $108.17/hr. However, when we switched
to semesters, the Payroll system now assumes a 1387 hour academic year (2080 * 2/3). Therefore, the fully burdened rate would come out to be $121.67/hr. Therefore, every time we bill an hour worked under the semester system, we are losing $13.50. I realize
this is just an accounting loss, since the faculty member is still getting the same $90K for the academic year, but it still translates into a situation where we have billed less than our costs on the books. Ideally we would have kept the 1560 hour assumption
for the academic year, when we switched to semesters. However, the decision to expense over 8 months instead of 9 months, forcing the 1387 hour academic year, was made without considering the unintended consequences to research grants and contracts, specifically
T&M contracts. I am interested to find out if any other universities ran into similar problems when they switched from quarters to semesters, and what they did to rectify those problems.
Thanks,
Glen
Glen A. Jones, MBA
Director, Post Award
Research and Sponsored Programs
Wright State University
Dayton, Ohio 45435-0001
Phone: 937.775.4461
Fax: 937.775.3781
Email:
xxxxxx@wright.edu
Glen,
From a financial point of view any T&M contracts should be full burden for the hours. Full burden is the wage of the faculty plus associated benefits and F&A. If the proposal provides for support staff, they
should be figured into the hourly cost if not explicitly separated. For example, Faculty X makes $50 a hour with a 38% full time fringe benefits. The institution has an IDC of 45% MTDC. The project will include a GA who makes $12 with 6% fringe. The rate
would be
50+(50*.38)+12+(12*.06)= 81.72
(81.72*.45)+81.72=118.50 an hour
At my prior institutions, we would round up to the next round $ for the purpose of the proposal. So we would propose a $120 an hour but charge only actual. This provided a bit of flexibility in case the wages
or fringe rate changed.
Cheers,
Rene
----------------------------------------------------
Rene Hearns
Director, Grants and Sponsored Programs
Edinboro University
Biggers House
148 Meadville Street
Edinboro, PA 16444-0001
Phone: 814.732.1052
Fax: 814.732.2611
Office Hours 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
To my knowledge, for full-time faculty, only for work outside the AY (because AY work is dictated by the collective bargaining agreement). Grant-funded employees, students are paid for actual work
hours, as would some faculty outside the AY.
Marc,
Do you have any grants/contracts that you bill based on a fully-burdened time and materials hourly rate? If so, how do you calculate the hours worked by an academic year faculty member?
Thanks,
Glen
Glen A. Jones, MBA
Director, Post Award
Research and Sponsored Programs
Wright State University
Dayton, Ohio 45435-0001
Phone: 937.775.4461
Fax: 937.775.3781
Email:
xxxxxx@wright.edu
Hello Glen,
Not really. We assume 12 contact hours per semester is full-time. With office hours, prep, grading, service, etc..., that works out to 40 hours or so, but that's not how we account for it. To do grant-funded research, a faculty member is released from that
obligation, usually in 3-credit (25%) increments.
Marc Gagne
Interim Associate VP
Office of Sponsored Research
West Chester University
Marc,
Do you assume a 40 hour work week for faculty, even though they only having a teaching load of 12 hours per semester?
Thanks,
Glen
Glen A. Jones, MBA
Director, Post Award
Research and Sponsored Programs
Wright State University
Dayton, Ohio 45435-0001
Phone: 937.775.4461
Fax: 937.775.3781
Email:
xxxxxx@wright.edu
Hi Glen, when faculty are paid during the AY, they are paid effectively by % FTE, with the requirement that full-time faculty
work 12 contact hours per semester, as per the CBA. So, if a faculty member has 9 hours teaching, then the grant picks up 25% of his salary, as per the CBA pay schedule, using the DHHS fringe and IDC rate. For the 3 months of summer, faculty are paid at a
biweekly rate not to exceed what they made during the prior AY.
Marc
Marc Gagne
Interim Associate VP
Office of Sponsored Research
West Chester University
Marc,
Thanks for the additional information about how it is paid and expensed. Do you have any time and materials contracts that utilize academic year faculty? If so, how do you calculate the hours worked in a given
month?
Regards,
Glen
Glen A. Jones, MBA
Director, Post Award
Research and Sponsored Programs
Wright State University
Dayton, Ohio 45435-0001
Phone: 937.775.4461
Fax: 937.775.3781
Email:
xxxxxx@wright.edu
Just to be clear, in the PASSHE system both the academic year research and teaching are administered over a 9-month contract. Faculty are paid bi-weekly, actually, with 20 pay periods in the 9-month
AY. Our fiscal year begins July 1, so the summer pay bridges two fiscal years, but budgets just roll over from one FY to the next, with little or no disruption in the summer.
I hope I'm explaining that clearly.
Hi Marc,
Thanks for your feedback. I am assuming that the academic faculty pay is expensed over that same 9 month period, so how does your payroll/accounting system handle expensing 1Ž2 month in the first and last month
of the academic year?
Regards,
Glen
Glen A. Jones, MBA
Director, Post Award
Research and Sponsored Programs
Wright State University
Dayton, Ohio 45435-0001
Phone: 937.775.4461
Fax: 937.775.3781
Email:
xxxxxx@wright.edu
In the PASSHE system, the academic year is still 9 months, with 4.5-month semesters, and 3-month summer.
Dear Fellow Research Administrators,
I am interested to find out from other universities that have recently switched from quarters to semesters, how academic faculty effort is being handled at these institutions. Typically, under a quarter system,
the academic year is split into three 3 month quarters with 3 months for the Summer. Academic faculty are expensed over 9 months, but paid over 12 months, with the option to teach or do research in the Summer and earn up to 1/3 of their academic year salary
during the Summer. This assumes a 1560 hour academic year, with the ability to work 2080 hours/year if the Summer option is taken.
However, when it comes to semesters, it does not seem to work out so nicely. If we assume that the academic year is divided into two 4 month semesters, that leaves 4 months for Summer. However, if we also assume
that the work load for the academic faculty still is 1560 hours and the Summer can be no more than 1/3 of the academic year, we run into a dilemma. By expensing the academic faculty over 8 months instead of 9 it forces the work week to be 45 hours under a
1560 hour academic year assumption. However, if we maintain a 40 hour/week assumption and expense over 8 months, this makes the academic year 1387 hours and effectively increases the hourly rate of the academic faculty.
How have other schools overcome this workload dilemma with respect to faculty effort on grants for academic faculty. I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
Thanks,
Glen
Glen A. Jones, MBA
Director, Post Award
Research and Sponsored Programs
Wright State University
Dayton, Ohio 45435-0001
Phone: 937.775.4461
Fax: 937.775.3781
Email:
xxxxxx@wright.edu
====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable
archive, are available via our web site at
http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
A link directly to helpful tips:
http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help ======================================================================
====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at
http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
A link directly to helpful tips:
http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help ======================================================================
====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at
http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
A link directly to helpful tips:
http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help ======================================================================
====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at
http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
A link directly to helpful tips:
http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help ======================================================================
====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at
http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
A link directly to helpful tips:
http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help ======================================================================
====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at
http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
A link directly to helpful tips:
http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help ======================================================================
====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at
http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
A link directly to helpful tips:
http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help ======================================================================
====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at
http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
A link directly to helpful tips:
http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help ======================================================================
====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at
http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
A link directly to helpful tips:
http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help ======================================================================
====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at
http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
A link directly to helpful tips:
http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help ======================================================================
====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at
http://www.healthresearch.org (click on the "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
A link directly to helpful tips:
http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help ======================================================================