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OUHSC Faculty Salary Adjustment

The Office of Vice President for Research (OVPR) and the Office of Research Administration (ORA) are pleased to announce a revised method for calculating salary for faculty with partial OUHSC FTE. The changes in the calculation of the HSC faculty (with partial FTE) base salary were made to better align with the HSC Institutional Base Salary Policy, and lead to a simpler and more consistent method to calculate salary for those faculty. The new method will also result in lower cost sharing amounts for the HSC/OU Health dual-appointed faculty who are over sponsor base salary caps and have less of an impact on our F&A rate.

Effective July 1, 2023, all faculty with partial OUHSC FTE who submit a proposal to an external sponsor should adjust their salary to the equivalent of 1.0 FTE in their proposal budget. Adjusting to 1.0 FTE equivalent allows flexibility for any necessary adjustments that need to be made regarding academic and clinical FTE splits at the time of award while still being compliant with HSC Institutional Base Salary Policy.

Example: Professor X has a 0.2 FTE academic appointment at HSC and his/her base salary in PeopleSoft is $40,000. Professor X (in coordination with their department support) should adjust his/her FTE and base salary to 1.0 and $200,000 respectively, when preparing a budget. If these adjustments exceed a sponsor’s salary cap, the salary cap should be used.

As HSC/OUH clinical faculty receive additional awards, they will need to work with their departments to adjust their HSC (academic) FTE accordingly to align with their research commitment needs while still appropriately reflecting their committed effort for each award. An example of the FTE adjustment is provided below.

Example: Faculty with an academic appointment of 0.2 FTE would have a maximum of 2.4 calendar months (CM) available for HSC commitments. If they need more than 2.4 CM for their combined academic commitments, then academic FTE would need to be increased and clinical FTE decreased as necessary to address the potential overcommitment of their research commitment.

A sample budget justification and a spreadsheet containing some examples of how to calculate the base salary for a HSC faculty member with partial OUHSC FTE are provided below.

Budget Justification (PDF)
Spreadsheet (PDF)

If you have other special circumstances, such as a Veterans Affairs (VA) appointment, please contact your Sponsored Programs Administrator (SPA) for guidance.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Does the salary adjustment apply to all of the staff and faculty?

No, HSC salary adjustment rule applies to faculty only.

Can a 100% OUH physician with a volunteer appointment at OUHSC submit or participate in a grant?

Yes, as long as there is confirmation in writing from the HSC Business Manager or the Department Chair that an HSC appointment will be made by award for the proposed grant effort, we will proceed with submission. The base salary based on the academic rate from their compensation letter also needs to be provided in this documentation based on the OUHSC FTE appointment.

How is the academic rate for 100% OUH providers listed on the grant application?

The department should calculate the base salary according to academic rate and partial FTE, and use that information to annualize the salary to 1.0 FTE.

How should the base salary calculations be applied to grant applications submitted or awarded prior to 07/01/2023?

We are not going back and revising any budgets—submitted or awarded—prior to 07/01/23, assuming the changes don’t meet the threshold for prior approval from the sponsor. Departments can make any changes on the post-award end. Please follow up with your SPA if there needs to be a formal rebudget request sent to the sponsor for approval.

With annualizing FTE to 1.0 at the proposal, how do I calculate my percentage of effort?

Always use calendar month calculation, which takes into account percentage of effort and FTE on a 12-month basis. If the FTE is less than 1.0 at the award, the percentage of effort should be increased to meet the annualized calendar month proposed in the application.

When a sponsor salary cap is applicable, are we still required to cost share the difference between the salary cap and the actual base salary amount?

The faculty I am preparing a budget for has a VA appointment. What needs to be included for them in the budget and justification?

The VA MOU should be used to determine HSC, VA, and OU Health (as applicable). Please use the VA tab on the salary adjustment spreadsheet to input each of the FTEs. The base salary from PeopleSoft Financials is input to calculate the maximum HSC FTE and base salary. Total FTE across all entities must not exceed 1.5 FTE. If the VA appointment is 5/8 or higher, the maximum available HSC FTE will be less than 1.0.

For assistance with calculations for VA appointees, please reach out to your SPA. The SPA will need a copy of the VA MOU for the faculty in question.

Note that the justification will need to include both the new language for the 1.0 FTE adjustment as well as the additional language previously always required for VA appointees.

What % effort do we enter in the participants table on the SoonerTrack request form?

As all documents routed should already include the annualized numbers, the % effort in the participants table should be the % effort based on the 1.0 FTE adjustment. Keep in mind that if you have a partial FTE at the award, the effort percentage should be adjusted to meet the calendar month base on the actual FTE at the award.

Can you provide an example of FTE adjustment that needs to be made at the award?

If 2.4 calendar months (CM) is the amount of effort needed for a project (traditionally 20% for someone who has a full 1.0 FTE appointment), then a dually appointed faculty with less than 1.0 FTE on the OUHSC side (or faculty with less than 1.0 FTE due to some other reason) needs at least 0.2 FTE on the OUHSC side in order to meet the same 2.4 CM commitment as someone who is 1.0 FTE at OUHSC.

However, if only 0.2 FTE at OUHSC, then that would also mean in reality that faculty would be committing 100% of their OUHSC FTE towards the single research project requiring 2.4 CM with no room for any other OUHSC service (i.e., administrative, teaching etc., if applicable.)

If the faculty has OUHSC effort on any other projects besides the one being proposed at 2.4 CM, then that faculty would require an adjustment of more than 0.2 FTE.

Per the OUHSC salary annualization policy for faculty that are less than 1.0 FTE in PeopleSoft, 20% of 1.0 FTE calculates the same as 100% of 0.2 FTE.

The amount of total FTE a faculty requires for their OUHSC committed effort should account for the number of combined calendar months effort for all projects and other activities under that OUHSC FTE.