Academic Policy 1405.18
Summer Sessions Allocation and Appointment Policies and Procedures
Budget
Each fiscal year, the vice provost for academic affairs allocates budget to all colleges and schools for summer teaching. The allocation funds summer teaching for July and August as well as the following May and June of the same fiscal year. Typically, the amount of the allocation reflects the college or school’s average summer enrollments and expenditure totals in recent years. It also includes a percentage addition that represents the previous year’s average faculty salary increase. An update for the first summer session is usually given in February.
Funding is provided for organized, on-campus courses. The only standard exception to this rule is support for study abroad. Units may also request an exception for the instructor of a face-to-face course that is taught off-campus during the summer months to be paid from the summer budget.
When available, funding for summer orientation advising will be based on a centrally identified budget and allocated proportionally to participating colleges according to either the previous year’s official orientation attendance numbers or other relevant criteria, such as past expenditures.
Employee Appointments and Payments
All employees teaching summer courses must be appointed in an appropriate nine-month faculty or graduate student position title with the default position salary distribution set to the regular academic year departmental worktag. While Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 407.1 allows unit pay for summer teaching, instructors of record should be appointed, unless a well-justified exception is approved. Since nine-month positions are not payroll active during the summer session period, any employee appointed for summer only is not benefits eligible. Employment must be ended before the start of the August intersession.
By current policy, summer salary is based on the employee’s previous academic year full-time equivalent salary at 2.5% per credit hour. Any changes to this rate will be communicated to the colleges through the workload directions. Faculty with a full-time equivalent salary of less than $40,000 should receive a minimum payment of $1,000 per credit hour. For courses with enrollments of seventy or more, the base course payment is approved to be $5,000 for three credit hours or more. All other special pay situations should be submitted to the Office of the Provost for consideration prior to making commitments. Exceptions must be pre-approved annually and will usually be called for in February. If faculty are expected to teach more than 6 hours during a summer session, contact the Office of the Provost for approval prior to extending the offer.
Extra sections of a course should not be added for additional payment to the instructor. They should be added if enrollment creates the need and there is no responsible option for increasing the enrollment cap, and when applicable, increasing the available seating.
Interdisciplinary cross-college efforts should be reported on the workload form by the home college of the instructor. If there are multiple instructors, contact the office of the provost for guidance regarding dividing entries on the workload for enrollment and instructor payment.
No payments may be made from summer teaching funds for research or general administrative duties or the directing of individual studies, low-enrollment practicums, theses or dissertations. In addition, payment for internships must be pre-approved. There should be no compensation for courses that do not pay during the academic year.
Twelve-Month Appointed Faculty
Except for faculty in Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences who may be considered for a change in distribution of salary, twelve-month 100%-appointed faculty who participate in summer teaching should not be paid from the summer budget. Their entry on the workload spreadsheet should reflect no additional compensation. In rare cases, well- justified requests for extra compensation will be reviewed by the vice provost for academic affairs.
Twelve-month less-than-100%-appointed faculty for whom teaching is an additional duty should receive an increase in percentage of appointment and a salary adjustment, if needed, with the summer teaching portion of their salary temporarily distributed to the appropriate summer school worktag. Salary distributions should be pre-approved, workload-documented exceptions.
Only salary distributions with a fixed summer end date should be made to the summer worktags. All requests to use this pay method must be justified and pre-approved because the employee must be twelve-month appointed to use this option.
Graduate Assistants
Graduate assistants should be compensated at their regular monthly rate or as outlined in the workload tab for directions or procedures. Graduate assistants must be enrolled in three hours of coursework during May intersession or summer to qualify. Those who have graduated in May who will be teaching during the summer must be placed in a lecturer or instructor position for summer appointments. To be eligible, individuals must have an appropriate degree credential consistent with APS 1435.50. To be effective for summer teaching pay, the position change from graduate assistant to lecturer/instructor (after graduation) should be dated the weekend before the start of the summer session.
Twelve-month appointed graduate students must have GSIE approval to increase summer teaching in their existing load. A 50%-appointed graduate student should receive an appointment percentage increase to 75% with the addition of one 3 credit hour course. If needed, the salary amount should be adjusted. The summer teaching load portion of their salary should be distributed to the appropriate summer worktag. Instances of graduate student appointment increases and salary distribution must be pre-approved, workload-documented exceptions.
Workload Spreadsheet
Each March, an updated workload spreadsheet will be distributed to college budget officers and/or HR or related staff. The first tab will contain updated directions to the college for the current summer’s entries. A second tab will cite any necessary procedural updates for all colleges.
The workload is designed with tabs for each department within a college. Each tab feeds to a summary within itself and to two master summaries for the fiscal year and the session. The departmental tab system allows for data to be pulled from other sources and pasted into the workload. Enrollment estimates can be made for a first submission, but the “Real Enrollment” must be recorded if there will not be subsequent submissions throughout the summer. If subsequent submissions are made, then “Real Enrollment” must be used for each submission after the first in order for the total tuition and net formulas to tally correctly. The columns labeled in red contain formulas and do not require direct entries, except for adjustment under special circumstances.
The comments field in the workload should be used to provide justification for exceptions, information on special approvals, course cross-listing connections, and special pay notes, such as “hourly,” “extra comp,” “salary distribution,” etc.
Each course offering should be, at minimum, revenue neutral. Please note, however, that students do not generate tuition in an equal manner. For example, if the student is a staff member, then the tuition is significantly lower. It is clear that some classes should be offered regardless of net/gain loss. We have a responsibility to offer and staff classes that are needed for degree progress and completion. Therefore, we ask that you review departmental averages as opposed to individual classes per session where appropriate. We encourage you to work with programmatic faculty to analyze the necessary classes; that is, essential courses with offerings reflecting fiscal responsibility within the department.
Further details will be available with the workload directions each year.
Timeline
Workload spreadsheets will be distributed by spring break. The first draft using the estimated enrollment columns is due to the Office of the Provost by April 17 (or the mid-April date specified in the workload directions) of each year. The second draft should include actual enrollments and be submitted around May 15 or after the initial approval is received. In the case of course cancellations and other changes throughout the summer period, the workload must be updated according to the directions tab and resubmitted before payroll approvals will be completed. A final copy of the workload showing the end-of-summer actual enrollments and expenses should be submitted by the mid-August end-of-summer payroll.
Payment Worktags
Nine-month appointed employees should receive summer teaching pay Workday Period Activity Pay. A training document will be provided.
Worktag numbers for each college are located in the SUMM budgetary unit, which is managed in the Office of the Provost. There are different worktags within each college for:
- Employees teaching courses—Teaching
- Employees who support a course and perform directly related administrative functions without teaching (subject to approval)—Support
- Employees who provide summer orientation advising services; paid advising must be directly related to summer orientation and not be part of the employee’s regular duties—Advising
- Employees teaching study abroad courses (off-campus)—Study Abroad
The current worktags are:
| Label | Worktags |
|---|---|
| Summer Agriculture Teaching | PG002591 |
| Summer Agriculture Advising | PG002592 |
| Summer Architecture Teaching | PG002588 |
| Summer Architecture Support | PG002589 |
| Summer Architecture Study Abroad | PG002590 |
| Summer Arts and Sciences Teaching | PG002593 |
| Summer Arts and Sciences Support | PG002594 |
| Summer Arts and Sciences Advising | PG002595 |
| Summer Business Teaching | PG002596 |
| Summer Business Advising | PG002598 |
| Summer Business Study Abroad | PG002597 |
| Summer Education Teaching | PG002599 |
| Summer Education Advising | PG002600 |
| Summer Engineering Teaching | PG002601 |
| Summer Engineering Support | PG002602 |
| Summer Engineering Advising | PG002604 |
| Summer Engineering Study Abroad | PG002603 |
| Summer Law Teaching | PG002605 |