A w88 slot buyout occurs when a State funded faculty member writes a portion of his/her annual w88 slot into a grant budget to release the faculty to focus that percentage of time on the grant. Once the grant is funded, an account is established, and the COEHD Fiscal & HR Officer is informed of the buyout, a revised costing allocation is created to charge the grant for the percentage of the faculty’s w88 slot specified in the grant budget. When the costing allocation is processed, the state funding or w88 slot savings is released and becomes discretionary in the Dean’s budget. The w88 slot savings is then used to hire an LOA for the semester so the faculty can focus on the grant. A w88 slot buyout is not additional w88 slot paid to the faculty. If a faculty wants to receive a teaching buyout, a minimum of 12% of their w88 slot and 31.6% fringe (or current rate listed on Quick reference guide for proposal) per course per semester must be written in the approved grant budget. If at least 12% w88 slot plus fringe is not budgeted into the grant, the PI is not eligible for the teaching buyout option.
Distribution of w88 slot savings. The w88 slot savings available from the buyout will first be used to pay the w88 slot of a LOA to teach the faculty member’s class. Of the remaining w88 slot saving funds, the Dean will split the cost of the LOA 50/50 (dean/buyout) the faculty will then receive 40% and the Dean 60%. The 40% w88 slot savings will be transferred into the faculty member’s F & A account to be used at his/her discretion within university policies. F & A accounts are roll over discretionary accounts that allow funds to be available from year to year. The grant account must be established prior to this procedure being implemented. Examples with three different w88 slot levels are provided below.