Definitions:

NSTP – Negotiated Salary Trial Program

SBS – Scale-based Salary [an individual’s regular scale salary rate, plus any off-scale]. This does NOT include administrative stipends.

NSC – Negotiated Salary Component [the salary component beyond the SBS that must be negotiated annually]

TUCS – Total UC Salary [this is the salary rate, consisting of the participant’s SBS plus the NSC]

Guidelines for Participants

If I participate in the NSTP, will I be able to obtain summer salary?

Answer: Summer salary and the NSTP are independent programs, and the NSTP does not affect a faculty member's decision to obtain summer salary. Funding availability and eligibility are key factors in program participation.

With respect to a scenario, a professor might have limited external funding. In that case, it would be better to take summer salary alone. In fact, our Procedures web page states, "It is expected, but not required, that faculty will maximize summer ninth opportunities before utilizing this program."

On the other hand, if a faculty member has sufficient and eligible external funding, (s)he could participate in the NSTP and/or take summer salary. If (s)he elects to take NSTP and summer salary, the summer salary rate may be based on the TUCS.

Example:

Non-NSTP Salary			NSTP Salary at 30%
Non-NSTP SBS	$90,000		NSTP SBS	$90,000
Non-NSTP Summer Salary Rate	$10,000 (SBS/9)		NSC	$27,000 (SBS x .30)
			NSTP TUCS	$117,000 (TUCS = SBS + NSC)
			NSTP summer salary rate	$13,000 (TUCS/9)

 

How is the NSTP different from the concept of summer salary?  Does this mean that we could increase our 9 month salary by up to 30% from (non-state) extramural funds?

Answer: Summer salary and the NSTP are independent programs. The NSTP rate is effective during the year for which a faculty member receives approval (July 1 through June 30) - the 9/12 salary is increased by the negotiated salary component (up to 30% of the scale-based salary).

Are faculty in the Teaching Professor series (Lecturers with Security of Employment) eligible to participate in the NSTP?

Answer: Yes. Effective with the 2020-21 year (7/1/2020-6/30/2021) and going forward, Lecturers with Security of Employment will be eligible to apply for participation in the NSTP.

Are there any possible exceptions for late applications (e.g. because of receiving a grant after the deadline)?

Answer: No, under the terms of the program set by UCOP, there are no exceptions to the deadline and faculty may not participate for partial-years. Because it is a pilot program, the parameters have to remain very rigid.

Guidelines for Departments and Division

Contingency Fund

What cost account code should be used for the transfer of the 10% contingency fund contributions? This will help us determine if there are any unrestricted extramural funds to which this type of expense would be considered an allocable cost. These funds don’t really represent salary. The 10% contingency fund contribution seems to be more of a fee to participate in the NSTP. Because these contributions are just 10% of a negotiated component dollar amount they can’t be represented as effort towards research (i.e. salary) on an extramural fund.  If it will not be charged via an account code, how does the campus plan to allocate contingency funds from the PI FOAPAL to the divisional FOAPAL?

Answer: There are two options; if neither are allowable by the fund source, then it can't be used for NSTP. 1) transfer the funds directly to the contingency fund; 2) charge a percent of the base salary to the unrestricted fund, then use the freed-up 19900 funds to transfer into the contingency fund. Accounting will have to answer questions about process or account codes.

On the fund manager worksheet the calculation includes benefits cost on the 10% contingency. Can we get clarification from APO on if this 10% contingency is going to be charged as salary and therefore we need to estimate benefits costs as well or if we can just do a transfer of funds not charged as salary/benefits expense?

Answer: The 10% can either be transferred directly, or used to pay a portion of the salary. Which option you choose depends on which method is allowed by the fund source. If you must do the latter, then yes, benefits costs are incurred. Note that the portion of the salary is not 10%, it's some smaller percent that releases the dollar equivalent of 10% of the negotiated component.

What types of expenditures [from reserve fund surpluses] would be appropriate or not. What have other campuses done with reserve funds?

Answer: To our knowledge, only UCSD has used the reserve fund, we believe to support graduate studies programs. In addition, UCSD’s implementation guidelines include these suggested uses:

1. Graduate student support
2. Faculty salaries and/or staff salaries in the department or division of origin

 

Proposal Evaluation and Review

Training compliance

How does a department chair obtain information with regard to training compliance and/or what are the particular trainings that a professor must obtain?

Answer:

Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Prevention Training

UC Cyber Security Awareness Fundamentals

UC Ethical Values and Conduct General Compliance Briefing

The divisions receive a list of employees who are out of compliance. Each division handles the list differently e.g. some may send to all employees, some to department chairs, etc.

In addition to the compliance list, you may:

• ask the faculty member to produce a copy of their diploma or transcript
• email LearningCenter@ucsc.edu and ask whether that faculty member has completed their training

Safety Training

Safety training requirements vary by division.

Outside Professional Activities

The faculty member must have submitted the annual report for all prior reporting years.

Funding

Can NSF funds be used to support participation in the NSTP?

Answer: Yes, but the maximum allowed is the dollar equivalent of two summer months (2/9ths) of the higher negotiated TUCS rate. No rebudgeting is allowed to exceed this maximum. The funds may be used for summer salary or they may be spread out over the whole year as a NSC component. This use of NSF funds aligns with all of the other campuses on this issue.

Can we include an estimated 3% increase as of July 1st when calculating the faculty salary rates? We don’t usually know what the actual yearly faculty salary increase will be (~3% or more) prior to July 1st nor do we usually know all of the review and merit increase outcomes before 7/1 that may result in increased salary rates for some faculty.

Answer: For the application, use the current rate without projecting for the range adjustment or any merit increase. If either the range adjustment or the merit are effective on July 1, the new salary rate may be used to increase the TUCS except as stated in the Procedures and depending on funding availability:
The total UC salary--scale-based salary plus negotiated component--may not be changed after July 1 for any reason, including but not limited to: merit increases and promotions approved after July 1, even with a retroactive effective date; or the receipt of additional contract and grant funds. As of 2021-22, the scale-based portion of the salary is subject to increase due to a range adjustment (e.g. general range/COLA effective October 1 or an date other than July 1); the negotiated salary component is not subject to increase and remains at the same dollar amount for the participation year.

The guidelines say that “funding must be awarded and in hand prior to June 30 of the current fiscal year to be considered for that year’s application”. Why is this so important, especially because it may disqualify R01 recipients who receive annual increments every October 1 which must be expended in that fund year?

Answer: Funding must be real and available to be considered for the NSTP; this restriction protects the program. Allowing future, potential funding that doesn’t pan out could jeopardize the program, requiring payouts from the reserve fund. Since this is a pilot program, no exceptions have been made for specific fund types.

The Procedures state that the fund source must cover the entire year. Grant award dates do not line up with the academic year. It's likely that a faculty member may have the grant funds to participate but will be pulling from 2 or more fund sources to guarantee the full year of funding. Is that an issue?

Answer: No, it's not a problem to use multiple fund sources for NSTP, as long as they are all "in hand" at the time of the application.

What does “funding must be awarded and in-hand—deposited to a UCSC account—prior to June 30th” mean? If an award is released by OSP does that qualify? We ask because the majority of our contract and grant funds are issued on a reimbursement basis i.e. UCSC Extramural Funds Accounting invoices the award sponsor on a monthly or quarterly basis for costs that have already occurred on the award. The campus essentially fronts the funds to cover the costs and then is reimbursed by the sponsors.

Answer: That's not a situation we envisioned, but it should qualify. The principle is that there must be extremely minimal risk of the funds not being available.

DIVDATA

How should divisions enter the NSTP rate in divdata?

Answer: DivData salary should reflect the non-NSTP rate (the Scale-Based Salary), since that is what should be used for special salary practice calculations (and range adjustment). Divisions should add a comment "19-20 NSTP participant; TUCS $nnn,nnn" to the 7/1 salary row.