Re-Implementation of Effort Reporting in LSA
Purpose
This document was developed to provide LSA Chairs and Directors with notional
guidelines for faculty reporting that are consistent with LSA Human Resource practices and
policies and aligned with State and Federal effort reporting requirements. Individual faculty
workloads are determined by departmental expectations and may depart significantly from
those in the guidelines. The template is not appropriate for use by individual faculty for
establishing workload expectations, merit, or buy-out rates.
What is Effort Reporting?
The University has always required that faculty effort be distributed in its appointment
system among scholarship, teaching, and service. Long-serving faculty will remember the
computer generated letters from the President that provided a yearly formal accounting of each
faculty member’s effort. When the University made the transition to MPathways, the effort
reporting process was not fully automated in the Central HR system and most faculty
appointments today are 100% “instructional”. Of course, faculty in LSA still contribute to the
teaching, scholarship, and service missions of the College. Recently the University hired an
audit firm to revi ew the effort reporting system. They recommended that, in order
to address the requirements of State and Federal regulators, the University reimplement the pre-MPathways practice in which faculty appointments separately identified
the effort devoted to different faculty activities.
Why do we have to do it?
Effort reporting is required, first and foremost, by federal granting agencies who are
"buying" a faculty member's time for research. Therefore, the need for effort reporting arises
immediately in those units — primarily in the natural and social sciences — that have funded
research grants. Federal research sponsors require that faculty declare the percent effort
that they devote to each research project. For this purpose, faculty with a normal teaching
load in their department are considered to have 50% of their academic year time available to
devote to scholarship. Faculty who commit more than 50% of their effort to funded research
are expected to pay a fraction of their academic year salary on research grants, according to
the rules established in their department, with a corresponding decrease in the fraction of
their time devoted to College funded "scholarship" or "instruction".
Effort reporting is also required for other reasons. When LSA faculty pursue activities
through appointments in other UM Schools, Colleges, Institutes or Centers, their
appointments are adjusted to reflect the nature and distribution of their efforts. Similarly,
when faculty are on Scholarly Activity Leave or Sabbatical their appointments are adjusted. The
appointments of faculty who assume certain administrative positions at the unit or college level
are changed to reflect an administrative effort component. In these and similar situations it is
necessary for the faculty member’s appointment to reflect appropriately both the nature and
the distribution of effort.
What do I have to do?
Most faculty will neither need to take any action nor will they see any change in their
appointment. All of the necessary appointment changes will be carried out by departmental
and college staff. The faculty that have some fraction of their salary (including summer salary)
supported on external grants have for several years had to complete an annual on-line effort
certification. In the future, these certifications will reflect the modified LSA effort attribution.
What does it have to do with my teaching load?
Teaching loads are unaffected by effort reporting. The standard teaching load for
research active faculty in LSA remains 4 courses per academic year. In some departments,
where the scholarly norm is for faculty to work closely with large groups of graduate student
and postdoctoral researchers, this instructional effort may count towards a portion of the 4course expectation. For faculty that have significant "administrative" effort, the instructional
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Re-Implementation of Effort Reporting in LSA (continued)
expectation is reduced in proportion to the increase in effort for (administrative) service.
What are the normal expectations for Scholarship, Teaching, and Service in the
College?
For HR reporting, most faculty appointments are structured as 50% "scholarship" and
50% "instruction", in recognition of the fact that outstanding teaching requires that faculty
spend time both in direct instructional activities and immersed in the scholarship/research
of their field. The following table provides examples of tasks typically identified with
instruction, service, and scholarship/research.
Faculty are expected to provide substantial service to their unit. The service credit is
at the level of one didactic course (10%). Faculty with major administrative responsibilities
(e.g. Chair of a Department) are given an "administrative" appointment, with a
commensurate reduction in the fraction of their effort that is attributed to scholarship and
instruction. The default for the balance of the appointment for faculty with 50% or greater
administrative roles will be Departmental Scholarship/Research unless otherwise
negotiated. For those teaching during their administrative appointments, the
Departmental Scholarship/Research effort will be reduced to allow for the teaching effort.
Occasionally, faculty with unusually heavy service responsibilities (e.g., Associate Chairs of
some large departments) may be granted a "course release" in recognition of the time spent on
service. From an HR perspective, this is accomplished by assigning a fraction for
"administrative" effort, with corresponding decreases in effort for "scholarship" and
"instruction". The first of the following two tables offers examples of duties that illustrate
the distinction between those considered as regular service and those viewed as
administrative. The second table outlines the effort reporting associated with the award of
‘course releases’ for administrative service.
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Re-Implementation of Effort Reporting in LSA (continued)
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