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Guidelines on Course Releases and Buyouts

Instructional faculty are expected to teach a full course load (as defined by CDSP) and to continue their research and service obligations as specified in their contracts. Course releases and course buyouts are requested by faculty members to fulfill unusual professional or research responsibilities/opportunities.

For the purposes of this document, ‘department’ refers to an academic department or program, and ‘chair’ denotes the department chair or program director; ‘CDSP’ refers to the School of Computing, Data Sciences, and Physics, ‘Dean’ to the Dean of CDSP, and ‘W&M’ to William & Mary (the University).

I. Course Releases

A course release is a one-time reduction in a faculty member’s teaching load, typically offset by either (a) an increase in other duties or (b) an increased teaching load in a different semester to make up the course. Chairs are not authorized to grant a course release without prior approval from the Dean. Requests must include a compelling justification, and should be provided to the Dean in writing, with the Associate Dean of Finance & Administration copied.

II. Course Buyouts

A course buyout generally involves funds external to William & Mary that are used to purchase faculty time. With the approval of the chair and the Dean, faculty may buy out their time by using external funding (e.g., an outside grant or fellowship) under certain conditions, listed below. A course buyout is treated as a form of partial academic leave and must comply with Section III.D.2 of the Faculty Handbook (Academic Leaves) and with the Provost’s policy on Academic Leave Without Pay or at Reduced Pay. The Provost’s approval authority for course buyouts is delegated to the Dean.

  1. Any grant proposal that includes a request for an external agency to fund a course buyout must receive prior written approval from the department chair and the Dean before the proposal’s Routing and Review Form is submitted to the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP). The request should indicate how the buyout will advance the faculty member's research. Course buyouts are only permitted when they were part of the original grant proposal’s budget (i.e. one cannot add a buyout retroactively to an awarded grant), and only if sufficient funds are budgeted to cover the buyout (see point 2 below for cost calculation). If the proposal is awarded, the faculty member must inform both the Dean and the Associate Dean for Finance & Administration of the award as soon as possible. The Associate Dean for Finance & Administration will coordinate with OSP to charge the appropriate portion of the faculty member’s salary and fringe benefits to the grant once it is awarded.
  2. The reimbursement cost for buying out a single, 3-4 credit course is 20% of the sum of the faculty member's 9-month base salary plus fringe benefits. Fringe benefits should be estimated as 38% of the base salary.

    Example: Faculty member Smith has a 9-month base salary of $100,000. Her fringe benefits are estimated to be 0.38 x $100,000 = $38,000. Professor Smith wishes to be released from teaching PHYS 101 in the Fall semester. The reimbursement cost that should be included in her grant proposal budget is 0.2 x ($100,000 + $38,000) = $27,600.

    For the purposes of this formula, 40% effort is attributed to the full-time classroom teaching responsibilities of a tenured or tenure-eligible faculty member, corresponding to two 3-4 credit courses per academic year. Other categories of CDSP faculty are normally not eligible for course buyouts; exceptions may be considered by the Dean on a case-by-case basis.
  3. A faculty member may buy out of only one 3-4 credit course each semester.
  4. A faculty member who buys out of a course is still expected to conscientiously mentor all their undergraduate and graduate research students, with no reduction in the time and effort devoted to this responsibility.
  5. Buying out of a course does not exempt a faculty member from any service or administrative duties — the faculty member is expected to continue fulfilling all usual service obligations (committee work, student advising, administrative tasks, etc.).
  6. Faculty members seeking a course buyout must request that buyout at least one full semester prior to the semester in which the buyout will take effect.
  7. A course buyout may not be taken in the semester immediately preceding or following a scheduled semester research leave (SSRL), a leave granted upon completion of service as department chair, a chair’s term of service if the chair was released from teaching duties, an administrative leave, or a leave of absence without pay; exceptions may be considered by the Dean on a case-by-case basis.
  8. A course buyout cannot be used in the same academic year in which a faculty member's teaching load has already been reduced for any other administrative reason.
  9. Faculty start-up funds may not be used to buy out courses.
  10. Teaching in the summer session may not be used as a substitute for an academic-year course, nor may compensation from summer teaching be used to offset or buy out a regular semester course.
  11. Ordinarily, a faculty member may not be approved for more than three course buyouts in any rolling six-year period.