Dear faculty,

We are writing to follow up on recent deans’ memos outlining the university’s shift to a uniform 10% effort allocation for one course equivalency. We also want to address some questions that were raised at the October 27 Faculty Senate meeting.

The change to this uniform effort allocation is driven by our deep commitment to faculty success, as reflected in many actions we have taken in response to the current federal environment. Our compliance with federal guidance is essential to ensuring that UVM faculty whose scholarly work depends on federal funding—including lecturers and senior lecturers in many units—can receive that funding. Our intent is not to disrupt long-standing practices around how faculty use their time, but rather to shore up our administrative accounting so your good work can continue. Safeguarding our faculty’s academic freedom to pursue support for their research is vital.

Supporting the success of our faculty focused solely on instruction is also vital. We believe that we have the necessary internal governance mechanisms to ensure that there is little practical impact on faculty members’ workloads as a result of this action. These mechanisms include annual review guidelines and RPT guidelines. We can achieve federal compliance with minimal impact on the day-to-day work of our faculty.

Why the change?
The Federal Uniform Guidance for the reimbursement of grant expenses requires universities to charge federal grants at the same rates that we would charge ourselves for the same activities. A practical example is that departments pay the same rates for the use of core facilities that we charge federal grants (e.g., in areas such as high-performance computing or genomic assays). Similarly, we must charge federal grants the same per-course equivalency effort allocation that we charge ourselves. In practice, this requires a uniform “effort allocation,” for course equivalencies across all units and faculty categories, that can be used as a basis for grant reimbursement. Currently, UVM’s effort allocation for a course equivalency varies, and has been subject to unit-level changes over time. The resulting inconsistencies in course equivalency effort allocations are indefensible. 

We agree with those who note that the federal guidance is not explicit regarding course equivalency effort allocations. But neither are these guidelines explicit about rates for core facilities, office supplies, space charges, allowability of all possible expenses, or any of the myriad costs that are sometimes paid internally and sometimes paid via federal reimbursement. Instead, the federal government depends on local compliance that is consistent with broader “market” standards, reinforced by periodic federal audits of research expenditures.

There are also internal reasons for the change. Inequities exist across our campus. It is not uncommon for faculty from different departments who participate in cross-college teaching to have different percentages of effort for similar work. We are aware of one case in which one faculty member could be allocated 8% effort, another 10%, and a third 12.5% for teaching the same course. These differences are difficult to justify.

Thus, the need is clear for a university-wide, uniform effort allocation for a course equivalency.  
 
Why 10%?
Several of you have asked how we arrived at the 10% rate. The Federal Uniform Guidance states that charges should be consistent internally and with broader “market” standards. We know from our work in our professional disciplines and associations, and from discussions with colleagues across research universities, that a typical workload at research universities (R1 and R2) is 40–50% teaching, 35–40% research, and 15–20% service/advising. This is consistent with UVM practices.

All faculty in the Grossman School of Business, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences already allocate 10% of their effort per course equivalency. Tenure-track faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are at 7% or 8%, while lecturers and senior lecturers are at 12.5%. The average of these is about 10%. Thus, 10% meets the market standard and respects current practice in many colleges and schools.

The consultative process
Discussions around the need for the change began with prompting from the Office of Research in the spring of 2025. Colleges and schools had multiple meetings including leadership and faculty in spring and fall 2025 to provide faculty with an opportunity to give feedback on how to operationalize the change. These constructive consultations resulted in slightly different timelines for implementation among the colleges and schools.

How will this impact lecturers and senior lecturers?
We want to reassure the campus that lecturers and senior lecturers will continue to have workloads consistent with 8 course equivalencies per year, with 7 course equivalencies every third year consistent with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

In addition, it is important to know that as allowed by the CBA, research and service associated with teaching (which is already ongoing work for many faculty) may be allocated to workload. Use of these mechanisms, and the other mechanisms noted above (annual review guidelines and RPT guidelines), will limit the practical impact of this change on faculty. 

In addition, in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, the College of Education and Social Services, and the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, lecturers and senior lecturers already participate in advising and shared governance. Annual review guidelines and RPT guidelines can be adjusted in those colleges and schools to properly reflect these contributions without resulting in additional functional workload.

Where things stand and the work ahead
As noted earlier, all faculty in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and the Grossman School of Business are already at a 10% effort allocation per course equivalency.

Tenured and tenure-track faculty in the remaining colleges and schools will move to the 10% per-course equivalency effort assignment starting in the fall of 2026, in keeping with the 40/40/20 or 50/40/10 effort allocation of our peers.

Lecturers and senior lecturers in the College of Education and Social Services and the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources will also move to 10% effort in fall 2026. Lecturers and senior lecturers in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences will remain at their current effort allocations to provide additional time for guideline modification and will move to 10% in the fall of 2027.

In all cases where change is occurring, however, working groups will be formed to examine annual review guidelines and RPT guidelines to determine whether any revisions are necessary to adapt to the change and support faculty success within the current practices in each college and school. 

The working groups will be formed in accordance with each unit’s standard practices for determining such membership.

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We recognize that this feels unsettling for some on our campus. We believe this decision is the best way to ensure federal compliance and we remain committed to continued conversations about implementation. We appreciate the help and support of the campus through this important change.

Sincerely,

Linda S. Schadler
Interim Provost and Senior Vice President

Kirk Dombrowski
Vice President for Research and Economic Development