I have raised the question of salary support for 12-month faculty. Below
is my question and NSF's answer. I must say that NSF's answer, " the
general NSF policy is that we do not want to augment the total salary of
faculty members during their term of faculty appointment," is a little
disingenuous, considering that A-21 specifies that grant funded salaries
must be based on "base salaries" and must represent a % of the 100% salary
for the period.
But NSF has had the practice of not paying AY salary for 9-month faculty
for many, many years.
Chuck
From: "Strausser, Beth A." <xxxxxx@nsf.gov>
To: "'xxxxxx@vcu.edu'" <xxxxxx@vcu.edu>
Subject: RE: 12 mo Faculty salary
Hi Chuck,
Good to hear from you. Jean asked me to get back to you and mention that
she was out sick all last week. I was away unexpectedly as well so we're
just now playing catch up. In any case, to answer your question, the
general NSF policy is that we do not want to augment the total salary of
faculty members during their term of faculty appointment. So, for example,
if a PI is on a 9 month research appointment, then the University is already
paying them to conduct research and requesting salary would normally be
inappropriate. In the case of a 12 month appointment, where they must bring
in their own funds and are not getting salary support from the University,
then PI's may request salary from NSF. They will need to justify the reason
for that in the budget justification. That being said, just because they
request it, does not mean that NSF will be able to fund it. Just as you are
feeling the squeeze in academe, so some of our programs have budgetary
constraints of their own. I hope that helps clarify this issue somewhat for
you. Take care and have a good weekend.
Beth Strausser
NSF Policy Office
>From: Herbert B. Chermside [mailto:xxxxxx@vcu.edu]
>Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 2:56 PM
>To: xxxxxx@nsf.gov
>Subject: Fwd: 12 mo Faculty salary
...snip...
>Fax 804-828-2521
>OFFICE e-mail xxxxxx@VCU.EDU
>Personal e-mail xxxxxx@vcu.edu
>http://www.research.vcu.edu/ospa.htm
At 05:51 PM 10/8/2003, you wrote:
>Hi--
>
>It has been our understanding that NSF did not generally pay for what we
>call course buyouts (where the teaching load of a faculty member is
>reduced if s/he can get a grant to pay for a piece of his/her salary).
>One of the senior faculty members here says that she was informed by
>people that this isn't the case. Looking on their website, it seems
>unclear, except for this passage from the NSF grant proposal guide:
>
>"NSF regards research as one of the normal functions of faculty members
>at institutions of higher education. Compensation for time normally
>spent on research within the term of appointment is deemed to be
>included within the faculty member's regular organizational salary.
>Grant funds may not be used to augment the total salary or rate of
>salary of faculty members during the period covered by the term of
>faculty appointment or to reimburse faculty members for consulting or
>other time in addition to a regular full-time organizational salary
>covering the same general period of employment"
>
>But this passage seems to be talking more about increasing someone's
>compensation, which we're not doing. I called NSF and was told to speak
>to someone in the Policy office, who hasn't gotten back to me yet. I
>also did a search on Google and saw a few other universities mentioning
>that NSF would not support a buyout.
>
>Does anyone have any hard info/experience with this?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Fred Averick
>Sponsored Research Administrator
>Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
>New York University
>251 Mercer Street
>New York, NY 10012
>
>
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Herbert B. Chermside, CRA
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Virginia Commonwealth University
PO BOX 980568
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Voice: 804-828-6772
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OFFICE e-mail xxxxxx@VCU.EDU
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