Eligibility

    Eligible USF faculty members are tenured, probationary, or term; staff must be permanent administrative or permanent program staff. To request course or time release, eligible USF faculty and staff must be involved in a sponsored project.  A sponsored project is a research, training, and/or service activity supported all or in part by an outside entity.  A sponsored project involves a formal agreement between the University and a sponsor that binds the University, not an individual, to a specific scope of work and specific deliverables.

Approval Process 

    Eligible USF faculty and staff must apply to the Dean of the College/School or Vice President of their department or administrative unit for time release to work on a sponsored project.  Approval will be contingent upon the needs of the faculty or staff member’s department/office and the faculty or staff member’s workload. 

    Approval of faculty or staff release time to participate in a sponsored project must be obtained at the proposal stage.  The terms of the course or time release must be written on the Proposal Routing Form (PRF), which is developed by the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP).  The Proposal Routing Form then must be approved and signed by the Dean/VP and the Provost’s Office. (The Provost’s Office signature indicates institutional approval and is obtained by the Office of Sponsored Projects.) 

Staff Release Time

    One day a week is equal to 20% of a staff member’s time.  Using this percentage as a base, the Dean of the College/School or VP of the administrative unit may determine how much time a staff member may devote to a sponsored project.  Once the percentage of time a staff member will spend on a project is approved, this percentage is applied to the staff member’s annual salary to determine how much to charge an external funding agency for the staff member’s release time and fringe benefits.

Faculty Course Release Time

     Faculty who wish to be released from a three credit hour course during a semester must request 20% of their semester salary (10% of their academic year salary) and associated fringe benefits from an external funding agency to secure this release time. 

     Faculty who wish to be released from a four credit hour course during a semester must request 25% of their semester salary (12.5% of their academic year salary) and associated fringe benefits from an external funding agency to secure this release time.

    The following release time calculator can be used to determine the salary and fringe benefit costs that would need to be requested from an external funding agency for a 3 credit hour and 4 credit hour course release over one or more semesters.

Faculty Course Release Calculator