The University
Senate of Michigan
Technological University
Defeated by Senate
PROPOSAL 05-07
(Voting
Units: Academic)
MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
FACULTY EXTERNAL FUNDING INCENTIVE PROGRAM
Purpose
The purpose of the External Funding Incentive Program
(EFIP) is to enhance the research, scholarship, and instructional activity of
faculty by increasing the level of external funding. The mechanism for doing so is to provide a
semi-annual incentive payment to general fund supported tenured and
tenure-track faculty who secure funding for their academic year salary from
external sources.
Provisions
To participate
in the program, a faculty member must include all or part of his/her general
fund academic year salary and fringe benefits in an externally funded grant or
contract budget. If eligible and approved prior to the beginning of a semester,
the incentive payment will be made to the faculty member in accordance with the
procedural criteria after the end of the semester (approximately January 15 and
June 15). Such payment(s) will be made in a lump sum or, if necessary to assure
adherence to all prevailing laws and policies, in multiple payments over
consecutive months. The payment(s) will be subject to applicable withholding.
Criteria
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The faculty member must hold a tenured or
tenure-track general fund supported faculty appointment.
-
This incentive program only applies to
externally funded salary during the academic year. Faculty participating in
this program will not be released from teaching or service responsibilities as
defined by their respective academic unit.
-
Academic year support for the participating
faculty, and the associated fringe benefit cost (academic year rate) must be
expensed in a sponsored account. The
total amount available from the general fund for disbursement in accordance
with the EFIP criteria will be equivalent to the academic year support
expensed.
-
The faculty member is not required to expense
all academic year salary available in a grant or contract through this
program. A portion can be expensed in
accordance with the provisions of this policy and the remainder in accordance
with the normal policies of the faculty member’s department or school.
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Salary funds released from the general fund
through this incentive program will be distributed 75% to the faculty member
and 25% to the department or school. A
faculty member can receive up to a maximum of 20% of the faculty member’s
academic year general fund salary through this incentive program. The EFIP payment received by the faculty
will be fringed at the existing summer (extra compensation) fringe rate. The difference between the fringes expensed
in the sponsored account, and the fringes charged on the EFIP payment received
by the faculty, shall be available to the department or school for use at the
Chair/Deans discretion. Calculation of any
incentive payment shall exclude the value of any benefits. Any incentive
payment made shall not modify the faculty member’s base salary nor be counted
towards the faculty member’s summer salary. Availability of any payments under
this plan is subject to any applicable university, State, or Federal laws,
regulations, or policies.
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The salary support must be derived from
externally supported research, instructional, or other sponsored grants or
contracts that pay applicable facilities and administrative costs. Grants and
contracts must include authorization to use funds for faculty salaries and
fringe benefits. Salary support derived from external funds must fully pay all
direct costs, including associated fringe benefits, and applicable federally
negotiated facilities and administrative costs.
-
A request by a faculty member to seek an
incentive payment under this program must be submitted at least two weeks prior
to the beginning payroll date of the semester for which the incentive payment
is desired. Approval by the relevant Department Chair and Dean will be
contingent upon meeting the criteria and purpose of the program and upon the
faculty member maintaining a high level of productivity and satisfying the
workload expectations of their academic unit. If not explicitly approved by
appropriate Chair and Dean prior to the first payroll date of the semester for
which the incentive payment is desired, the request for participation in the plan
shall be considered to be rejected.
-
The faculty member must exhibit satisfactory
performance in all assigned duties as determined by the appropriate chair/dean.
Included is the responsibility of providing good fiscal and administrative
management of all external funds for which the faculty member is principal
investigator and completion of necessary reports in a timely and effective
manner. Failure to exhibit satisfactory
performance is grounds for suspending the participation of the faculty member in
this program until such time that their performance as improved to a
satisfactory level.
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Participation in the program is voluntary and
is not mandated upon either the faculty member or the University. Participation
is not an entitlement, but may be made available to eligible faculty members
when both the University and the faculty member determine that it is in their
mutual best interests to do so. A Chair or Dean may not arbitrarily withhold or
deny approval for participation in this program by any individual faculty
member.
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Modifications to any aspect of this program
may be implemented by the President at any time. It is expected that such changes would
normally occur in consultation with the University Senate. For a faculty member participating in this
program at the time of any approved changes, those changes will not become
effective until the academic year following the year in which they were
approved.
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Academic units may use some of the salary
savings achieved through this program for non-bonus awards or other support for
outstanding teaching, research, or service activities.
Example
Professor A in
COE has an academic year general fund salary of $70,000 and has a funded DOE
project with $10,000 of salary and $4,100 of fringes in the approved project
budget; there is $7,896 (56%) of facilities and administrative costs associated
with these items and the project has the standard incentive returns (6% of the
F&A to the PI, 12% to the department, and 7.3% to the college). Professor A
applies for and receives approval for participation in this program and elects
to distribute all $10,000 through the EFIP. After the semester, the total of
$21,996 of budgeted project expenditures is distributed as follows:
Professor A:
$ 7,500 EFIP
$ 1,515 Fringe
Benefit on EFIP
$
474 PI incentive return
Department
$ 2,500 Salary
recovery
$ 2,585 Fringe recovery
$
948 Departmental incentive return
College
$
576 College incentive return
General Fund
$
5,898 F&A remaining after incentive returns
Total - $ 21,996
Introduced in Senate: 11 October 2006
Defeated by Senate: 25 October 2006