Summer Non-Teaching Activities

Summer Research and Other Non-Teaching Activities

Faculty conducting summer research or other non-teaching activities (i.e. administrative work, etc.) may be appointed on a grant account, an endowment, or other non-instructional funds for up to three months in the summer. If the faculty member is paid on a grant, their summer appointment must follow the guidelines on charging faculty summer salary to sponsored projects as outlined below. If a faculty member is paid on an endowment, they must be either the holder of the endowment or a fellow on the endowment to use those funds.

When completing the Add Job for summer research in Workday, departments should include their stopgap account in the costing section effective the day after the research appointment ends. For example, if a faculty is conducting research from 6/01 - 8/31, the department's stopgap should be added to the costing section effective 9/01.

Charging Faculty Summer Salary to Sponsored Projects

Starting in summer 2022, to mitigate the risk of the University and the PI falling out of compliance with federal cost accounting rules, the VPR Office announced their Guidelines for Charging Faculty Summer Salary to Sponsored Projects, which were created to ensure compliance with the HOP 7-1010, VII. A. 6.

The guiding principle of this policy is that salary charged to sponsored projects should follow the effort expended to the project and should never exceed it in any one pay period.

For more information on how to process this change in Workday, please see the CNS Processing Guidance for 2022 Faculty Summer Salary on Sponsored Projects.

NIH and CPRIT Summer Salary Caps

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) impose a limit on the amount of direct salary individuals can receive under grants they support. Starting in summer 2022, the College of Natural Sciences will no longer be providing gap coverage for faculty members whose summer rates are above the NIH or CPRIT caps. Instead, faculty members looking to support themselves beyond the caps can either cover the gap through other, less restrictive funds as appropriate or be paid at the NIH or CPRIT cap rates.

Summer Teaching Activities

Appointment Dates

Standard appointment dates for faculty teaching summer session courses are as follows:

• First Summer Session: June 1- July 15
• Second Summer Session: July 16 – August 31
• Nine Week Session: June 1- July 31
• Twelve Week Term: June 1 – August 31

Funding

Summer session teaching should be funded on your department's summer session accounts: 20-XXXX-2903 for professional track faculty and 14-XXXX-2003 for tenured/tenure track faculty. 

Summer Teaching Loads

Faculty members are normally permitted to teach only one course during the summer (i.e. one organized course in any of the terms). A faculty member may be assigned to teach two courses during the summer if the Department Chair determines that every faculty member qualified to teach has been considered, no other qualified instructor is interested in teaching, and the two courses do not overlap/are not in the same summer session. If the courses do overlap, the department will need to either seek pre-approval from the College for any combination of overlapping courses that does not exceed 40 SWHs or submit an Instructional Overload Form for any combination of overlapping courses that are over 40 SWHs. For more information about summer Instructional Overload, please see the overload tab below.

Compensation and Salary Cap

Faculty compensation for summer session teaching is calculated on a per course basis. Compensation for each organized course of 3 or more credit hours is equal to either 1/6th of the faculty members’ long session rate or $11,000 (the summer salary cap), whichever is lesser. Whether a course is 6, 9, or 12 weeks does not affect a faculty member's compensation; course duration does, however, affect the percent time appointment that this compensation represents.

Maymester Courses & Intersessions

Maymester Courses

Payments to faculty who teach a Maymester course are processed as a One-Time Payment in Workday on the long session job, following scenario 14 outlined in the Faculty Summer Job Scenario Matrix. Maymesters are paid at either 1/6th of the faculty members’ long session rate or $11,000 (the summer salary cap), whichever is lesser, effective 5/01-5/31. These payments should be paid using departmental summer session faculty salary accounts.

Intersessions

Intersessions are courses that take place between the spring and summer semesters. Like Maymesters, they are listed on the spring course schedule and require students to register for them when registering for spring courses. However, unlike Maymesters, intersessions do not culminate in a trip abroad.

Departments need to communicate clearly, early, and often about any intentions to offer intersession courses. Since intersessions are not technically study abroad programs, they are handled on an ad hoc basis by the Office of Strategy and Planning. Departments should officially request course approval and NTT funds for intersessions in the summer planning process. Once approved, faculty teaching an intersession will be paid a course load-proportional rate, to be processed as a One-Time Payment in Workday on the long session job, following scenario 14 outlined in the Faculty Summer Job Scenario Matrix. These payments should be paid using departmental summer session faculty salary accounts.

Summer Instructional Overloads, Option III, & Supplements

Instructional Overloads

If a faculty member teaches two overlapping courses in the same summer session, and those courses put the faculty member over 40 SWHs, then the department must request Instructional Overload approval. Instructional overload forms must be signed by the Department Chair and the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs (note: summer overload does not require pre-approval from the Provost's Office). Once the overload has been approved by the College, the department can process the overload in Workday by following scenario 12 outlined in the Faculty Summer Job Scenario Matrix.

• Instructional Overload Pre-Approval Form

Option III

Work performed for Option III programs is not considered instructional overload, therefore compensation for these courses must only be pre-approved at the College-level by the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs. Once approved, summer Option III payments are processed as follows:

• If the faculty is not currently full-time in the summer, process the Option III payment as a non-teaching summer Add Job with SWHs that correspond to the amount of compensation requested.
• If a faculty member is already full-time during the summer, process the Option III payment as a One-Time Payment in Workday on the faculty's existing summer job. Alternatively, departments can create a 0% summer Add Job (using a No Pay Salary Plan) and then process the Option III One-Time Payment on that appointment. Either option is acceptable; however, the latter is recommended.
• If the Option III course is very sporadic (i.e., a weekend here of there during the summer), process the Option III payment as a One-Time Payment in Workday on the faculty's long session job.

Supplements

Summer additional employment is considered work that exceeds 40 SWHs. Any summer activities (teaching and non-teaching combined) up to 40 SHWs must be paid on a faculty summer Add Job. Any additional non-teaching employment is then processed as a One-Time Payment or an Allowance.  Note, research-related activities are never considered additional employment.

Modified Service

Modified Service

Faculty members on modified service or phased retirement should not normally have summer appointments. Any exceptions to this policy must be approved in advance by the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and the Provost Office.

Inactive Faculty Working in the Summer

Inactive Faculty Working During the Summer

If a professional track faculty who's primary job is inactive in the spring semester is planning to work during the summer (salary, one-time payment, allowance, etc.), then the following steps are required before the department can process the Add Job. Note that a Switch Primary Job is not required in this case.

1. Reactivate the primary inactive job effective 6/01 with 0 SWHs.
2. Process an Add Job for the summer work. Add payments to the summer job, as applicable.
3. Evaluate their status as of 9/01 and make other changes, as necessary.

New Faculty Starting in the Summer

New Faculty Hired with a Summer Start Date

Faculty starting with a Percent time in the summer

For new faculty hired with a summer start date (6/01 - 8/31), appointments will follow the PAR process using the regular faculty job profile. PARs will push into Workday with two salary plans (summer new hire salary and acadmeic salary) to ensure that the faculty is paid both during the summer and into the academic year. If the faculty member’s percent time changes at the start of the academic year (effective 9/01), the department must process a Change Job to adjust the SWH accordingly.

For professional track faculty, departments are also responsible for taking action in Workday after the specified end date of the appointment (depending on the status of the faculty, this may mean processing a Change Job for Renewal or Inactivation, End Job, or Termination).

0% Time faculty increasing hours in the summer

Faculty who are appointed early with a 0% time appointment must be given a Summer Add Job if they are to receive summer pay or if their hours increase in the summer. For example, if an Assistant Professor is hired on 1/16 at 0 SWH and will increase to full time on 8/18, the department should complete the following Workday transactions:

1. Process a Summer Add Job effective 8/18 to 8/31 at 40 SWH using the Summer Salary compensation plan.
2. Process a Job Change effective 9/01 on primary position to increase SWH to 40 using the Academic Salary compensation plan.

For more information, please see the Faculty Summer Jobs Guidance.

Summer Insurance for Faculty

Summer Insurance

Please see HR's Summer Coverage for Faculty page for information regarding faculty summer insurance.