Policy

• COE policy:

  • Department chair approval of Option III payments is required prior to processing.

  • Workload and amount are at the discretion of the department chair, but these should be consistently applied across the department.

• UT policy:

  • Graduate School: Option III (Non-Formula-Funded) Graduate Programs

  • Option III Policy Guide Revised August 4, 2023

Compensation

There are two methods of compensating faculty for Option III effort, depending on details of both the effort and the faculty member’s other employment, if any:

1. Add appropriate Scheduled Weekly Hours (SWH)/FTE to a faculty job if:

   1. The faculty member will not be additionally employed for a total of 40 SWH/100% FTE across all campus jobs during the proposed period of Option III appointment.

   2. Their Option III effort will be consistent over a period of time, such as over the course of a semester.

   3. If the dates and duration of the proposed Option III appointment would make them benefits-eligible.

2. Process an Option III Allowance or Option III One-Time Payment (OTP) on the faculty position in the Option III department if:

   1. The faculty member will already be appointed at a total of 40 SWH/100% FTE during the proposed Option III period. UT employees are limited to 40 SWH/100% FTE across all UT Austin jobs at any given time. If the Option III work is part of their primary job, an Option III Allowance should be processed on that job. If the Option III is not part of their primary job, process the Allowance on their faculty position in the Option III department with 0% FTE.

   2. If the Option III effort is sporadic, without the same set number of hours each week of the appointment.

   3. See Duration of work on tab “Which process?” on this page to determine whether Allowance or One-Time Payment is more appropriate.

Fall and spring process

Option III effort does not require APS pre-approval or an Instructional Overload form. All additional faculty compensation requires the prior approval of the department chair.

1. Obtain department chair approval of the Option III payment before beginning processing. (The chair's name and date of approval will be noted in the Workday business process.)

2. Use the Faculty Additional Employment Decision Tree to determine the most appropriate method of payment - either One-Time Payment or Allowance, according to duration of work guidance.

3. Choose payment component "Option III" in the appropriate business process.

4. Costing should be from the department's Option III Program account.

5. Include the following in comments:

   1. Approval details: "Option III payment approved by Chair Name on MM/DD/YYYY." 

   2. Option III course name and enrollment numbers

Summer process

See COE: Summer Employment - Faculty > Option III .

Please send suggested additions to this page and notifications about broken links to COE-FacultyAffairs@austin.utexas.edu.