Hello all,  Our institution has a federally-negotiated indirect cost rate and our academic deans are calculated in the indirect cost pools as 80% direct and 20% indirect.   One of our academic deans is Co-PI on an NSF application and wrote the application.  The program officer (PO) asked the lead PI to take the academic dean Co-PI  out of the budget and use indirects to cover her salary.  The dean sent the PO our rate agreement.   We didn't hear back for weeks and learned she left the NSF.  

Now the PO is back temporarily to complete the neogotiation and is asking again for the Co-PI (dean) to be cut. How would you handle this? 

Any insights would be welcome!