Grant Funded Course Release

As part of our end of fiscal year end process the Office of Sponsored Programs reviews and processes grant payments for course release provided in the last Academic year (1 July - 30 June). Please take a few minutes to complete this short form for each of your current grants between 15 March and 1 June each year to inform us if course release was provided to yourself or another SPU faculty in the past year. If no course release was provided simply select 'no' after entering your name and grant name in the form.

As Principal Investigator (PI) you must inform OSP of any course release supported by your grant funds each academic year. In doing so you certify that the course release was approved by your Academic Dean and was provided to the faculty member you list allowing them time to work on your grant project.

Course release allows Faculty to defer teaching one or more courses giving them the ability to focus on grant related work. Note that this is different than payments provided to faculty for grant work, commonly called overload or summer stipends. Compensation for course release is provided only to the salary pool managed by your school Dean allowing them to cover adjunct or other replacement costs to teach that course in the absence of the released faculty instructor. This compensation is calculated at a fractional rate of the faculty members salary (credits not taught/annual credit load) plus benefits. 

There are several levels of approval. As PI you are the first approver, it is your responsibility to ensure that your approved grant budget supports this work and to decide the amount of course release provided to yourself or your SPU faculty collaborators. Academic Deans approve course release at the time the grant is submitted, and again when it is requested by the PI. The Office of Sponsored Programs is the final approver and uses these data as part of our annual grant time and effort reporting.