Rationale:
Supporting faculty research, creative, and scholarly work is a key mission of the University. In some cases, faculty actively engaged in research and creative activities or in their professional fields may wish to decrease their teaching effort by charging a portion of their salary and fringe benefits to a specific university account to buy out their teaching obligations. This policy describes the conditions under which such Course Buy Outs are allowed. Course Buy Outs are often, but not exclusively, charged to sponsored research projects, so this policy complies with Office of Management and Budget Uniform Guidance for federal grants and contracts. Course Buy Outs are independent of research leave, as defined in Section 2.55 of the Faculty Manual, or other course releases and leaves that may reduce a faculty member’s teaching effort. Faculty with approved Course Buy Outs are released from teaching for the specific courses bought out but remain responsible for other core responsibilities. As a student-centered research university, the University expects faculty to teach at least one course per year if they are not on leave. However, in exceptional circumstances, a buyout of all assigned courses in one academic year may be approved.
Policy scope:
This policy applies to tenure-stream faculty (i.e., tenure-track and tenured professors), professors of practice, and, under some circumstances, teaching professors.
Policy:
This policy lays out the conditions under which tenure-stream faculty and professors of practice – hereafter, ‘faculty’ – may buy out portions of their teaching effort. Teaching professors who have been awarded pedagogically focused grants or internal or external fellowships may also buy out portions of their teaching effort. This policy governs Course Buy Outs using all sources of funding. Faculty may not self-fund course buy outs using non-university funds, including fellowships/stipends paid directly to them or their own funds. All funds used for Course Buy Outs must run formally through the University. Course Buy Outs may not be used to fund research leave, administrative leave, or unpaid leave of any kind. Faculty using a Course Buy Out in a given semester must continue to meet any remaining teaching obligations and service and/or administrative obligations. Course Buy Outs do not affect eligibility for research leave.
Faculty who wish to utilize a Course Buy Out must obtain prior approval from their department chair/school director and dean (in schools/colleges with departments/schools) or dean (in schools/colleges without departments). All Course Buy Outs supported by external grants must be pre-approved by the department chair/school director (where relevant) and/or dean during the grant proposal development phase. Requests for Course Buy Outs on sponsored projects must be approved prior to submission of the proposal by the Office of Sponsored Programs.
Prior to approving a faculty member’s request for a Course Buy Out using external funding, department chairs/school directors or deans must confirm that students in the academic programs associated with the faculty member’s department/school/college can complete their degrees in timely fashion without the teaching typically provided by the faculty member seeking a Course Buy Out. If a Course Buy Out is approved prior to submission of a sponsored project, the University will honor this Course Buy Out. Deans must review the overall impact of all faculty Course Buy Out requests on their school’s/college’s ability to effectively address its mission, including teaching both undergraduate and graduate students in person and/or online. In the case of any disagreement between a department chair/school director and a faculty member regarding a Course Buy Out, the Dean’s decision is final.
A Course Buy Out for each course (or school/college equivalent) costs 15% of a faculty member’s academic-year base salary and fringe benefits, unless the faculty member’s salary is above a mandated salary cap, such as the Federal NIH Salary Cap. In these instances, the cost for a Course Buy Out is based on the 9-month equivalent of the federal salary cap. Faculty may not buy out more than two courses in any given academic year, without prior approval from the Provost. Funding for a Course Buy Out must be available at the beginning of the semester in which the faculty member wants to buy out teaching effort, and the Course Buy Out must take place in the same fiscal year in which the funding is made available. Supplemental pay for overload teaching will not be provided during an academic year in which a faculty member has utilized a Course Buy Out.
Syracuse University recognizes success in teaching among its faculty to be of vital importance and values innovation and intellectual pursuit embedded within teaching. Therefore, a faculty member who wishes to buy out of all teaching obligations during an academic year must additionally buy out of their institutionally funded research effort or, in the case of professors of practice, effort devoted to staying connected to their profession, for a total cost of 80% of their academic-year faculty salary plus fringe (or 80% of the sponsor salary cap), regardless of their assigned load within that academic year. Buy out of all teaching obligations requires approval of the Provost and will be granted only under extraordinary circumstances, given the University’s educational mission. In such situations, the faculty member must continue to fulfill their service obligations.
Approved as interim policy – September 16, 2025
Approved by Provost – January 12, 2026