Faculty members who receive College or external grant support to conduct research and whose funding includes allowances for faculty stipends are paid through the payroll system administered by the payroll department. A stipend is defined as taxable wages or compensation for research or other service to the College.

1) When a grant that involves funding for stipends is received, the faculty member should notify the dean of the faculty's office of the amount of the stipend requested, the schedule of the work, and the fund/organization code to which the stipend should be charged, using a form available in the Office of the Dean of the Faculty. Upon approval by the dean, the stipend request will be sent to the payroll department.

2) When calculating stipend budgets, faculty members are reminded that the grant fund/organization is charged the gross stipend request plus the College’s contribution to FICA-MEDC, which is currently 7.65%, unless otherwise specified on the stipend request form.

3) Faculty members are paid during the months in which the work occurs. 

4) Faculty may not receive stipends until research is underway.

5) Total supplemental stipends from all research grants, internal and external, normally will not exceed 2/9ths of the faculty member’s full-time base salary for the previous year. This is the standard practice in the profession for eight to ten weeks of full-time work in the summer, and is the required limit for all faculty receiving NSF funding. Faculty members who request a stipend greater than 2/9ths of their base teaching salary as described in their contract must discuss their plans with the dean of the faculty.

6) Faculty and staff principle investigators (PIs) funded by federal grants are responsible for making certain that their reported distribution of payroll is an accurate representation of their effort expended on sponsored projects.
Annually, an Effort Report Form is distributed to each faculty, staff, and student who has received federal grant-funded compensation. Forms are distributed in September for the preceding academic and summer period.

The PI has signature and certifying authority to confirm effort of all staff and students, if necessary.

All Effort Report Forms must be signed and certified by December 31 and returned to Heather Ward, Accounting Department, 221 Lane Hall.

7) Faculty members who are to receive summer stipend payments — funded by either internal or external support — must make requests to the dean of the faculty's office by 1 May in order to begin summer stipends in June. Requests for stipends during the academic year must be received by the dean of the faculty's office by the first day of the month in which the stipend is sought.

8/2009