Appointing Faculty & Staff to a Grant

Initiating an appointment The grant PI or Project Coordinator is responsible for contacting the CON HR staff (usually Linda Spence) to initiate a faculty or staff appointment to a grant. It is imperative that appointments are made as soon as possible after the award notification is received. It is not appropriate, and causes extra work, to wait for several months after a grant is received before initiating appointments. On the other hand, it is not always possible because some staff may not be hired yet. We will assume you’ll do the best you can to get this information to us quickly. Note – you may request an mfk, and appoint faculty and to a grant, as soon as the Award Notice is received. You do NOT need to wait until the money is received. Give the following information to our HR staff:

1. The mfk or grant/program number to be used
2. The name of the faculty or staff member
3. The amount to be paid
4. Whether or not that amount includes fringe benefits
5. The “to” and “from” dates that the amount should be paid between. Usually this is the same as your grant year, but may need to be shortened if the grant began several months ago
6. Whether or not the salary should be paid as “summer salary” (only available for academic year appointments - see below)

PI’s or Grant Coordinators should create an ‘internal’ grant budget, to be used to determine the exact amount that will be spent on salaries by the end of the project period. This exact amount, and not a % of effort, is the information that we need to make the appointment. Translating “% of Effort” into “Amount to be paid” Grant budgets are usually prepared using a “percentage of effort” that relates to the time and money that a faculty or staff spends working on the grant. A faculty member who is being paid for 10% effort, and who earns $60,000 per year, should expect to spend 4 hours per week (10% of 40 hours) and have $6,000 paid from the grant (10% of $60,000). The actual percentage and/or the actual dollar amount often change slightly, due to various reasons. These include but are not limited to:

1. The original grant proposal used an estimated salary amount, and now you want to use the exact salary amount 
2. The yearly salary increase was not available when the grant was written, so it was estimated
3. The fringe benefit amount has changed
4. The grant itself could have been funded at less than 100%, with the PI left to determine where the cuts would be made

The PI or Project Coordinator should create an internal grant budget, use it to determine the exact dollar amount they want to pay in salary from the grant, and report that amount to Shirley for the appointment. This may make the “% of effort” slightly more or less than shown in the grant budget. Coordination with other grants Grant money replaces General Education Fund 050 money which is normally used to pay a faculty member their salary for the month. Each month, our faculty and staff may earn no more than their regular monthly salary amount, no matter whether the money comes from the General Fund 050 or from grant(s). A faculty member may be appointed to more than one grant during the year. The grant years may be different from each other, and they may be different from the University’s fiscal year. If a faculty is not appointed on a grant until halfway through a year, the grant salary amount might be “bunched up” in the last six months of the grant year in order to make sure the salary is paid before the grant expires. This could be a problem if other grants also need to pay the same faculty person during those months, and the regular monthly salary amount is exceeded. PI’s who have several grants need to coordinate the salary amounts, so that the regular monthly salary amount is not exceeded in any one month. This may necessitate a spreadsheet to determine the month-by-month salary that is paid from all grant and non-grant sources. Please ask Carol Haack to assist with this analysis if needed. Summer salary Faculty members who are on an academic year (9 month) appointment may be paid up to 3 additional months’ worth of salary in the summer. Usually this is paid as follows:

1. ½ month for the last 2 weeks of May
2. 1 month for June
3. 1 month for July
4. ½ month for the first 2 weeks of August

This time frame can be modified to fit the grant year, as long as we don’t exceed the regular monthly salary amount in any one month. Remember that other grants may be paying the same faculty person for the summer months, and you will have to coordinate with them. Appointment information should be given to CON HR (usually Shirley) as soon as the grant is awarded. Buyouts Buyouts may be allowed if a faculty member has enough grant money to replace a large % of their salary each month. The grant money replaces the General Education Fund 050 money; therefore, the General Education Fund 050 money is freed, and will be used to pay the salary of someone who will fulfill the teaching obligation of the faculty who is buying out. Buyout requests may not always be approved as they are contingent upon finding replacement faculty. If the buyout request comes too late to find replacement faculty, the faculty member requesting a buyout may be asked to defer for a semester. There may be other considerations for approval of a buyout. Buyouts are arranged with and approved by Associate Dean Kathy Hanson. The PI should initiate a meeting with her as soon as the award notice has been received.