B(1)

ROBINSON COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
POLICY PERTAINING TO CHARGES FOR COURSE RELEASES BY
PURPOSE AND FUNDING SOURCE

The long-run marginal cost of employing a faculty member is that individual's total salary. The number of RCB faculty in the long run is dependent, in part, on the level of externally-funded research; thus, if the average teaching load is six courses per academic year, the long-run marginal cost of a course release is somewhere between l/l0 and l/6 of an academic year salary--depending on the assumptions made about total number of faculty required to achieve the RCB's research and service goals.

Course Releases from Externally Funded Research Projects

Normally, a course release granted for research or other purposes that is financed by external funds will be charged at the rate of l0% of the faculty member's academic year salary (plus fringe benefit). The rate of l0% per course release applies to all externally-funded research projects, unless a lower rate was agreed to by the Dean or Dean's designee for required institutional cost-sharing purposes, prior to submitting the proposal to the grantor. For time not involving release from teaching a course that is part of the faculty member's teaching load for the year, the portion of the faculty member's salary to be charged to an externally-funded project is the percentage of time devoted to the project--i.e., time taken away from regular research, service and non-classroom teaching activities.

Other Externally Funded Course Releases

For purposes of promoting the College's research goals, funds available in the GSU Foundation or from indirect cost recoveries on research projects that provide for full indirect costs may, subject to approval, be utilized to provide externally-funded course releases for faculty.

Prior approval. Requests to fund course releases from GSU Foundation sources or indirect cost recoveries require the review and approval of the Dean or Dean's designee and the head of the academic unit in which the faculty member teaches. Such requests should be made in writing to the Dean or Dean's designee through the head of the academic unit.

Rate for quarters other than summer. Course releases financed by these sources of external funds will be charged at the short-run marginal cost (the cost of replacing the faculty member in the classroom) as opposed to the average cost of l0% of academic year salary. The proxy to be used for this short-run marginal cost is the current GTA stipend rate.

Normally, endowment earnings may not be used by the holder of a chair or professorship to purchase a course release for the holder. In any circumstances where this is permitted by the Dean, the rate will be l0% of academic year state-funded salary.

Rate for summer quarter. A rate equal to the current GTA stipend only applies to course releases for academic year quarters. In the summer, the marginal cost of a course release is l0% of academic year salary (plus fringe benefits), since this is the amount that an AY contract faculty member is paid under separate contract for teaching a course in the summer quarter.

(Recommended by Executive Committee 5/92 and Faculty Affairs Committee 5/92)