Release Time Guidelines and Procedures

Owner	Academic Affairs
Contact	[email protected]
Document Type	Guidelines and Procedures
Issue Date	November 12, 1999
Last Review	August 7, 2018

A. Context

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The purpose of these guidelines is to assist colleges/units in the efficient management of college resources. Release time is defined as the release of a faculty member from his or her instructional duties. While assigning faculty to administrative duties may be an effective use of existing human resources, this practice, as well as other release time assignments, may contribute to declining productivity. 

B. Guidelines

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The following guidelines were developed to assist the colleges in addressing productivity.

1. Faculty will only be assigned to administrative duties when the following conditions exist:

     a. Vacant adminsitrative position that will be filled; or, 

     b. Vacant administrative position due to a mid-year separation.

2. Faculty may be assigned to administrative roles for no more than the remainder of the current academic          year or one academic year in cases where the separation or notice of separation was received too late to           conduct a national search. The Provost/Vice-President for Academic Affairs may grant an appointment for       a second year.

3. In addition to the administrative vacancy assignments defined above, release time will only be granted for     those activities defined within the FSU-FFA Contract, approved workload agreements, or accreditation             requirements.

4. The Provost/Vice-President for Academic Affairs may also approve release time assignments.

C. Procedures

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The procedure will involve the use of an Excel spreadsheet/template to generate the release time, rather than individual PAFs. All changes in previously approved release time assignments will be prepared in conjunction with University planning. These should include requests for additions or deletions to release time activities and changes in FTE for existing assignments. Expenses or revenue generated from a release time activity can then be reflected as part of the department/college plan. The process is designed to accommodate those areas that have identified release time activities, but not yet identified the individual to whom it will be assigned. The actual determination of who will perform the assignment can be submitted at a later date.

1. For previously approved release time activities, a completed release time template must be submitted electronically to the Finance Office by the first day of classes each semester. The template should be sent to the Finance Office, the Office of Institutional Research and the Operations Analyst in the Office of Academic Affairs.
2. Assignments will be entered directly from the template into HRS.
3. Spring and summer templates will contain only new/additional assignments that were not processed as part of the fall template.
4. All changes, revisions or corrections to information submitted on the template must be processed using the PAF form.

The template may be submitted once per semester by the due date. After the template due date, release time assignments can only be processed using the PAF.