Every institution has a different set of imperatives and externalities
which drives who signs what.

At VCU the Board of Visitors (the legislation creating this state
institution gives this board full authority) assigns authority (rough
description!) to the President for anything, to the VPAdmin for anything
financial, to the Provost for anything academic, to the VPHealthSci for
anything related to health care, and VPResearch for (paraphrase) submit
proposals, accept awards, make subgrants for research, training, ...
(essentially any sponsored program for any purpose) and for matters
relating to Tech Transfer.  These officials may delegate.  As Director of
Sponsored Programs Administration, my delegation from the VPR is explicit,
in language drafted by myself and our General Counsel.  (Actually, we
drafted it a long time ago, and put the language in the BOV
resolution.)   At the time I accepted the job, we had no Tech Transfer
activity, so I got that authority, too, and have retained it because my
experience, but I only exercise it now in case of MTA's when our DorectorTT
is unavailable.

I have found that it is extremely useful to my function as the
institution's "contracting officer" for all sponsored activities to have
very broad authority.  On the other hand, my role is "staff" rather than
"line", so I have internal approval forms on which PI/PD and two levels of
academic management (chair and dean, or equivalent in some other areas).

I find the key is to
a)  define areas of responsibility functionally
b)  avoid confusing duplication of authority (e.g., one authority for
grants and another for contracts in the sponsored programs arena -- they
are all "agreements" from the business sense;  second e.g., "research"
under one authority and other subjects under another -- the modern
university is geting into so many activities that differentiating between
research and other things gets VERY blurred))
c)  have proposal and acceptance authority together (make sure the proposal
solves rather than creates problems for the final agreement, and the
sponsor is not whipsawed by a right hand and a left hand with no neural
connections!).
d)  make sure the person with day-to-day top authority is skilled,
experienced, and a good negotiator,  and also that the higher executives
who have the authority but not the experience know to rely on experienced
staff.

Good Luck!
Chuck

At 12:35 PM 7/26/00 -0400, you wrote:
>We have a relatively new President and a brand new Provost and Associate
>Provost.  As a result, we may have an opportunity to revisit the
>University's policies regarding signatory authority/authorities.
>
>I will appreciate an opportunity to review institutional policies related to
>signatory authority for proposals and formal agreements.  I am particularly
>interested in policies of publicly supported universities.  It would be
>helpful to know whether the authorized representatives differ if the
>proposals and awards/subawards relate to grants, contracts, or cooperative
>agreements; as well as whether there are budgetary thresholds such as:
>"above $xxxx, only the Provost/Chancellor/President is authorized to sign."
>
>Thanks!
>
>Howie
>
>Howard M. Kaplan
>Director, Research Services & Sponsored Progs.
>Georgia Southern University
>Hwy. 301 So. Office Bldg., P.O. Box 8005
>Statesboro, GA 30460-8005
>912-681-5465; FAX: 912-681-0719
>xxxxxx@gasou.edu
>
>
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Herbert B. Chermside, CRA
Director, Sponsored Programs Administration
Virginia Commonwealth University
PO BOX 980568
Richmond, VA  23298-0568
Express Delivery Only:
 Sanger Hall, Rm. 1-073
 11th & Marshall Streets
 Richmond, VA  23219
Voice:  804-828-6772
Fax     804-828-2521
OFFICE e-mail   xxxxxx@VCU.EDU
Personal e-mail xxxxxx@vcu.edu
http://views.vcu.edu/ospa/

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