Professorial faculty members can reduce their teaching loads in order to devote more time to research if external grant funding is available to support a portion of their academic-year base salary. Specifically, a faculty member with an average teaching load of N courses per academic year may buy out of teaching by providing from grant funds a fraction f = 60%/N of his or her academic-year base salary (plus associated fringe benefits) for each course reduction in teaching load. In cases of NIH funding for faculty members whose salary exceeds the NIH salary cap, the fraction f will be applied to the NIH salary cap for nine months.
Full-time Lecturers with grant funding may request course buyout by providing from grant funds a fraction f = 100%/N of their academic-year base salary (plus associated fringe benefits) for each course reduction in teaching load. For example, a full-time Lecturer with a six-course teaching load would need to provide 16.67% of base salary (plus associated fringe benefits) for each course buyout.
In no case will the cost of buying out a course be less than the cost of hiring a replacement instructor.
All teaching buyouts require the approval of the department chair and may not be allowed if they would impair the teaching mission of the department or college. Under normal circumstances faculty cannot buy down to a zero course load in a particular academic year. The choice of which specific course(s) will be bought out will depend solely on the department’s needs and is at the discretion of the chair, in consultation with the dean’s office.
Questions or specific cases can be discussed with the appropriate divisional associate dean.