February 6, 2007

To: Deans and Department Chairs

Subject: Faculty Salary Exchange Program (FSEP) – Pilot Program

I am pleased to announce the creation of a pilot program that will allow faculty who charge part of their academic year salary to extramural funds to bank salary savings generated from their position as discretionary funds. The Faculty Salary Exchange Program (FSEP) provides schools and colleges the option to implement a program that allows investigators to direct charge up to 30% of their academic year research effort to appropriate contracts and grants and use the salary savings generated from their faculty position to create a research fund. Funds released by participation in this program are intended to be used in support of temporary commitments. Any salary charged to individual grants must be allowable under sponsor guidelines and fall within the total percentage of the investigator’s effort on the project. Under the Faculty Salary Exchange Program (FSEP), there is no release from teaching or service duties. Current policies governing the retention and use of faculty salary savings will continue to apply to other faculty released funds.

Deans are delegated the decision whether to make the FSEP program available to faculty in their school or college. Deans are also responsible for determining specific program and process guidelines, including whether any portion of the salary release should be retained by the college or department. In those colleges that opt to make the program available, a further decision to participate should be made on a department by department basis by each Chair. Faculty wishing to participate must obtain approval from both the Department Chair and Dean and are responsible for initiating and renewing FSEP requests. Faculty can request approval for up to one academic year, but must submit a renewal request on an annual basis. As noted above, deans are delegated to approve FSEP requests as long as total compensated effort from extramural sources does not exceed 30%. Requests to participate at a higher percentage require endorsement from both the Chair and the dean and require approval by the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Faculty Welfare.

The pilot period is July 1, 2007, and will extend through June 30, 2010. At the conclusion of the pilot, the campus will evaluate its success and determine whether to continue the program in future academic years. Additional tools and administrative details to assist in planning implementation of the pilot are available at the Academic Personnel Office website.

Jan de Vries
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
and Faculty Welfare

FSEP Frequently asked questions
FSEP Job Aid

Page last checked: February 22, 2007