Course Buyout and Course Release Policy

Purpose

Faculty may require teaching time to devote to approved research or administrative project(s). The course buyout and course release policy establishes the guidelines and procedures for requesting a buyout or release within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). A course release, or workload reduction, is considered anything that deviates from the typical teaching load within the Department.

Definition

Course buyout: Release from teaching that is funded by extramural funding.

Course release: Relief from teaching that is sponsored by internal funding.

For this policy, even when a faculty member wishes to hire a part-time faculty member to teach or assist with one of their assigned courses and they want to process the payment to the part-time faculty member through non-grant fund, it is still considered a course release/workload reduction.

Course buyout criteria

1. At least 1/8 of the nine-month (12.5%) annual salary and corresponding fringes for the faculty member must be charged to an external grant/contract for each course buyout.

Example: 1/8 (12.5%) of $90,000 nine-month salary = .125*90000 = $11,250

Faculty needs to budget at least $11,250 in salary plus the applicable fringe rate (see WSU Composite Fringe Benefit Rates by employee group) to be eligible to request course buyout.

2. Faculty are limited to one course release per academic year (an exception can be requested for calendar year if the grant award is for multiple years). If an external grant/contract is budgeted for more than 1/8 of the faculty member’s nine-month salary, then the amount budgeted in the grant should be used to accurately reflect the sponsor-approved effort committed by the faculty on that grant.
3. Grant/contract must be awarded and funds available at the beginning of the semester in which the buyout is requested.
4. Faculty member should request in writing to the chair of his/her department well in advance of class scheduling (six months or more). Faculty should request the course buyout during the grant submission. At the time of award notification, the faculty should finalize the buyout with the department chair. If the chair approves, the request should be forwarded to the associate dean for faculty affairs for his/her approval.

Procedure

Faculty member (applicant)

1. At the time of external application, faculty member budgets for course release and completes the Course Buyout Request Form and forwards to chair for approval.
2. Approved preliminary course release should be forwarded to the grant contract administrator (GCA)/uploaded into Cayuse record.
3. At the time of award, faculty member and chair finalize semester in which course release will be taken and notify associate dean for faculty affairs and Research Support Services.
4. Faculty may appeal chair denial via email to the associate dean for faculty affairs and Research Support Services.

Department chair

1. At the time of external grant application, chair approves or denies course release request.
2. Approved Course Buyout Request forwarded to associate dean for faculty affairs.
3. Notifies associate dean for faculty affairs of finalized buyout.
4. Notifies department’s administrative assistant of approved course releases using non-grant funds.

Associate dean for faculty affairs

1. Associate dean reviews, negotiates, and approves course release.
2. Returns approved course release to chair, Research Support Services, associate dean for research and BAO.

Research Support Services/GCA/administrative assistant (AA)

1. GCA/AA will process labor change to charge faculty member to grant during approved semester.
2. GCA/AA will process labor change to return to the department’s general fund at the end of semester.

BAO

The dean’s office will transfer $4,500 of the salary savings from the full-time faculty budget line to the part-time faculty budget line in the general fund that can only be used for part-time faculty to cover the course that is bought out.

Policy revised: Sept. 11, 2023