Course Releases and Course Buy-Outs

The expectations for instructional faculty are that they will teach a full load of courses, as determined in their department, while continuing to do research and/or service per contract requirements. Course releases and course buy-outs may be requested by faculty members in order to fulfill unusual professional or research responsibilities/opportunities. 

Course Releases 

A course release is the reduction in teaching course load, usually with a commitment from the Dean's Office for replacement faculty. The type of replacement faculty used is at the discretion of the Dean's Office and funded directly by the Dean's Office. 

Course Buy-Outs 

A course buy-out generally involves funds external to W&M that are used to purchase faculty time. With the approval of the Dean, faculty members may buy out their time by using non-A&S funds (e.g., grants, fellowships) under certain conditions, listed below. This Arts & Sciences policy amplifies Faculty Handbook III.D.2 and "Academic Leave Without Pay or At Reduced Pay" policies. 

1. Any grant proposal that contains a request for an external agency to fund a course buy-out must be approved by the Chair or Chair and Director, as well as the Dean, before the proposal can be submitted to the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP). The request should indicate how the course buy-out will aid the faculty member’s research, preparation forteaching, or professional service. Buy-outs will only be granted if requested in the original grant proposal. Both the Dean and the Sr. Associate Dean for Finance & Administration should be notified when external funding (e.g., a grant) that involves a course buy-out is awarded. The Sr. Associate Dean will work with OSP to expense faculty time to the grant upon award. 
2. All course buy-outs will use the following formula to determine the reimbursement cost, regardless of the source of funds. Faculty members may buy out of teaching and general research (as defined by Sponsored Research guidelines) but may not buy out of service.
   1. First, divide the number of courses to be bought out by the standard annual course load in Arts & Sciences (currently 4). (This includes TE faculty in PhD granting units whose mentoring of graduate students accounts for half of the standard faculty course load.) 
   2.  Multiply the result by the faculty member's base salary plus benefits. Benefits will be calculated based on individual faculty member rates; for planning purposes OSP wil use an estimated rate of 38%
   3.  Multiply the result by 80%. Note that the remaining 20% represents the portion of a faculty member's time devoted to service. 
      Example: For a faculty member with a base salary of $65,000, the buy-out cost for one course would be calculated as follows: 1/4 x ($65,000 + $24,700) x 80% = $17,940  
3. Under normal circumstances, faculty members may buy out of only one course each semester. Only the Dean may approve a course buy-out of more than one course per semester. 
4. Faculty members seeking a course buy-out must request that buyout at least a full semester in advance.
5. A course buy-out may not be used in conjunction with scheduled semester research leave (SSRL), chair leave, administrative leave, or leave without pay. 
6. A course buy-out cannot be used in cases where a faculty member's teaching load has already been reduced for administrative reasons, such as service (e.g., course release to serve as chair/director). 
7. A faculty member buying out of a course is expected to participate fully in service and administrative duties. 
8. If a faculty member's course load is not symmetric (i.e., not constant across semesters), a course buy-out cannot be for the semester in which the course load is lighter. Also, if a faculty member requests to buy out a course in a semester in which more than one course is taught, the buy-out cannot be for the larger class. 
9. Start-up funds may not be used to buy out courses. 
10. Summer school teaching may not be used in place of or to buy out a course during the regular academic year. 
11. Ordinarily, no more than 3 course buy-outs will be approved within a 6-year period.