Hey #AcademicSky and #DigitalHumanities, here’s a question I didn’t know I needed to ask: Does your institution allow you to take summer salary when it’s budgeted in a grant? And will they facilitate that? (Mine does, but I discovered recently that maybe some don’t.) - ThreadSky

megsmith.bsky.social • 9 days ago

Hey #AcademicSky and #DigitalHumanities, here’s a question I didn’t know I needed to ask:

Does your institution allow you to take summer salary when it’s budgeted in a grant? And will they facilitate that?

(Mine does, but I discovered recently that maybe some don’t.)

Comments

jcschultz.bsky.social•9 days ago

If the grant is in hand, and summer salary was in the budget, then the institution signed a legal document specifying that use of the money and by law can't change that.

megsmith.bsky.social•9 days ago

Yes, agreed! Lots of potential compliance issues. In this case, there’s some question about whether the university’s willing to write summer salary in at all.

merisamartinez.bsky.social•9 days ago

To clarify, are you asking whether the institution allows you to work when you should be taking designated holidays? Or do you mean does the institution allow you to earn money in a period when you would otherwise not be earning anything?

megsmith.bsky.social•9 days ago

The latter -- since most US academics are on 9-month or 10-month contracts, does your institution allow you to be paid for an 11th month when you've got extra responsibilities due to a grant (or other admin duties)?

megsmith.bsky.social•9 days ago

Summer salary's a common solution to grant compensation, but I ran into questions from a collaborator because
1. their institution has deliberately gotten rid of mechanisms for extra compensation, and
2. the work of the grant isn't exclusively during the summer months.

lilyvalley.bsky.social•9 days ago

I budget mine based on the number of expected work hours in the summer. We get release time during the academic year, but a 20% FTE has to be worked AND that normally means we have an overload (adjunct) contract. The adjunct pay is only $2150. For us, the ESA is a much better deal.

megsmith.bsky.social•9 days ago

This is helpful, thanks! Their institution writes them in for 10% annual salary and then only gives them a single course release, which is an ethical double whammy of labor and compliance.

lilyvalley.bsky.social•9 days ago

10% FTE would be equivalent to half a summer for us. 160 hours including all conferences, webinars, admin, purchase orders, student meetings, recruitment, marketing, writing and "that time you lost in the shower thinking about this grant work". It's what I ask for a low-invest Co-I

lilyvalley.bsky.social•9 days ago

Mine does as an extra service agreement.

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