Summer Session Appointment Procedures
The Summer Session Appointment procedures for faculty and academic staff are listed below. The use of the term "faculty" in these procedures refers to both faculty and academic staff.
AY Summer Appointments Guide: Information on creating/amending and viewing AY (academic year) summer appointments for academic faculty and staff.
A. APPOINTMENT/AMENDMENT FORMS AND DATES
Academic Year (AY) Summer Appointment/Amendments: To appoint or amend an AY Summer appointment for faculty who are being paid for work during the summer (May 16 to August 15), you should submit the AY Summer form via the EBS portal. The AY Summer appointment functionality can be found under Actions. Click the HR Forms & Cost Redistributions tile. Then select Process an AY Summer Appt for Faculty or Acad. Staff in the drop down. Next click Start Employee Process.
The subject, course and section numbers must be included in the 'Functional Area' field in the funding line for all AY summer appointments paid that include teaching duties. If this information is missing, the appointment will be rejected.
AY Non-Duty Appointment Dates: AY faculty may be appointed for any period between May 16 and August 15. Faculty may pursue teaching, research, or service assignments up to a total maximum effort not to exceed three-ninths of the previous academic year salary rate. Work may take place outside May 16 and August 15 as governed by the university’s academic calendar. For non-duty responsibilities, it is expressly understood that employment and compensation is for completing responsibilities regardless of the employment period dates.
Annual Year (AN) Summer Appointment: To appoint a faculty member on an annual year basis in the summer, you should follow the same process that you follow to appoint in the spring and in the fall. Go to Actions. Click the HR Forms & Cost Redistributions tile. Select Create a New Appointment/Assignment or Change an Existing Appointment/Assignment in the drop-down. You will be directed to the appropriate form to complete the summer appointment.
The FAS forms may require attachments to be submitted with the forms. See the List of Required Attachments for further information on attachments that must accompany these forms.
AN Appointment Dates: AN faculty are normally appointed for any period between May 16 and August 15 to avoid overlapping appointment periods with spring and/or fall semester appointments. For AN faculty who do not hold a fall and/or spring appointment, the summer appointment period may vary to reflect the assigned duties.
B. PAY RATES AND PAY DATES
Compensation for AY Faculty: The compensation that an academic year faculty member receives when appointed for a full month during the summer session is based on a rate of one-ninth per month up to a maximum of three-ninths of the May 15 salary.
Compensation for AN Faculty: AN faculty will be compensated based on regular payroll conventions for the appointment period.
Partial Month Pay for AY and AN Faculty: For any summer appointment period that contains a partial month, e.g., May 16-31 or August 1-15, the pay will be calculated based upon the number of actual days within the partial month of the appointment. The amount to be paid is based upon a daily rate. The daily rate is the monthly salary divided by the number of calendar days during the partial month period. The daily rate is multiplied by the number of days worked in the partial month.
In all cases, the summer salary rate cannot be lower than the minimum salary guidelines in the Faculty and Academic Staff Salary Adjustment Guidelines.pdf .
2024 Pay Dates for AY and AN Faculty: Pay dates will be May 31, June 28, July 31, and August 30. The May and June payrolls will be charged to the 2024-2025 fiscal year. The July and August payrolls will be charged to the 2025-2026 fiscal year. More information on Payroll dates.
C. CONTRACT AND GRANT INFORMATION
Summer compensation is computed at the rate of one ninth per month of the May 15 academic year salary.
National Science Foundation (NSF) Grants: Compensation for Senior Key Personnel on NSF grants is limited to two months during the MSU fiscal year unless otherwise approved in your Notice of Grant Award.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants: There is a salary limitation for all NIH grants and contracts. Effective for all new awards issued on or after January 1, 2024, the salary limitation has increased to $221,900 for annual employees and $166,425 for academic year employees. View other NIH salary limitation amounts from prior years.
Salary Cap Note: It is MSU's policy to pay AY summer faculty/academic staff at their full academic year salary rate as of May 15. As necessary, a non-restricted account must be added to the summer appointment documents to cover the salary that exceeds the agency limitation.
For AY Faculty/Academic Staff: A note similar to the following should be added as an attachment to the AY summer form to show the calculation:
Example – An AY faculty/academic staff employee has a May 15 salary rate of $175,000. The employee is being funded from an NIH grant. To be compliant with the salary limitation of the grant, the amount to be charged to a non-restricted account is the following:
May 15 AY salary = $175,000/9 = $19,444.44 (monthly salary)
One month of grant limited salary = $166,425/9 = $18,491.67
$19,444.44 - $18,491.67 = $952.77 (Amount to be charged to a non-restricted account)
Please use the same methodology if charging other CGA RC accounts with salary cap limitations.
When uncertain about the summer dates that the grant work will be performed and there are no teaching duties involved, CGA recommends appointing over the full period (5/16-8/15). CGA's Effort Reporting system (used to document salary charges to CGA accounts) splits the summer pay into two effort periods, e.g. 5/16-6/30 in the semiannual report encompassing January 1 through June 30, and July 1 through August 15 payrolls are included in the semiannual effort report encompassing July 1 through December 31.
If you have questions, please contact the Contract and Grant Administration Office at 517-355-5040 regarding the summer appointment process.
Routing for AN and AY Summer Appointments: Grant funded summer appointment transactions that are submitted 61 or more days from the effective date of the appointment or change will be electronically sent in workflow to CGA for approval within the HR/Payroll system.
D. CALCULATION OF SUMMER PAY FOR FACULTY
In the absence of department/college definitions of workload, a full-time load is considered to be the totality of effort necessary to support:
1. 12 hours per week of lecturing, recitation, consultation or
2. Some equivalent combination of instruction, laboratory supervision, fieldwork, advising or workshops.
Percent of load is calculated to a maximum of two decimal points, e.g., 33%, 33.3%, or 33.33%.
E. UNTF REQUIREMENTS
UNTF Designation for AY Summer Appointments: All teaching appointments must indicate whether the appointment is covered by the UNTF agreement. To designate UNTF eligibility, select "UNTF" (for UNTF eligible assignments) or "NOUNTF" (for assignments not UNTF eligible) in the "Order" field in the AY summer appointment transaction. A letter of offer is a required attachment. See the UNTF Model Offer Letter for Summer Appointment.
UNTF Designation for AN Summer Appointments: There is no change in the process for designating whether an AN faculty summer assignment is covered by the UNTF contract: the designation is recorded on the appointment, reappointment, or change of status form. A letter of offer is a required attachment. See the UNTF Offer Letter for Summer Appointment.
Layoff Notice
Please be reminded of layoff notification requirements if a course is canceled (e.g., due to low enrollment). Article 17 of the Union of Non-tenure Track Faculty (UNTF) contract specifies that UNTF faculty:
"shall be given no less than 14 calendar days notice of indefinite layoff or in lieu thereof, two weeks pay at the employee's current regular salary rate, or a pro-rated combination of notice and pay. A notice of layoff shall be sent to the employee by certified mail, return receipt requested, or delivered in person to the employee."
If a UNTF faculty member is not given sufficient notice, the Summer Supplementary Instructional Budget funding cannot be used to pay any portion of the two weeks pay.
To determine whether an assignment is UNTF eligible, please reference Article 1 of the UNTF contract.
F. MISCELLANEOUS
Deadlines: Summer Appointment forms/transactions are due in Human Resources by the deadlines specified for the appropriate pay period. Please visit the MSU Payroll website for a listing of the HR form/transaction deadlines.
Summer appointments and amendments must be received in HR by September 30, 2024, and the link will become inactive on October 1, 2024. All forms must be submitted within the same tax reporting year.
The funding that was normally available for summer school instructors is being allocated in a different manner this year. As a result, the prior deadlines, approvals, and the use of the GP accounts are no longer necessary. Please contact your college dean’s office for additional information.
If unsure on the research account that will be used, process the form using a general fund until the research account number is received, as this ensures the AY summer pay is on record and accounted for prior to the form link being deactivated. If a change to the funding for a summer appointment is needed, a change to the funding can be submitted via a cost distribution at any point once the initial summer appointment is on record.
Contact Information:
For technical questions regarding the process, please contact the IT Services Help Desk at 517-432-6200 or email AVPHR.AcademicOps@hr.msu.edu.
For questions concerning faculty and academic staff summer appointment policies and procedures, please contact the Solutions Center at 517-353-4434.
For questions concerning graduate assistantships policies and procedures, please contact the Solutions Center at 517-353-4434 or GraduateAssistants@hr.msu.edu
