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What recourse is there to a faculty member if the university changes its policy after a grant has been awarded?

I am a tenured professor and recently won a prestigious research grant. For years, my college within the university** has operated under policies that provide special research incentives to faculty. Specifically, faculty who win certain grants (which I have) are entitled to a reduced teaching load and a college-funded graduate research assistant position. However, I just learned that my college has abolished both of these benefits, supposedly because of budget cuts, about the same time as the start date for my project this summer.

Is there any way I can make a justification for being grandfathered into the old policy, at least for the duration of my current grants, given that they were submitted under the old policy? And, more generally, what course of action do faculty have when their institution moves the goalposts on them like this?

** Note: my university is ranked as an R2 university (but only just). Consequently, research is not valued nearly as much as at a top-tier institution.

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    Did your grant proposal include the reduced teaching load, either explicitly or implicitly, when estimating the time you would devote to the project? And likewise the assistant as personnel? It may play better to argue this as "we made a promise to the funding agency" than "you made a promise to me". Otherwise it kinda sounds like you applied for the grant more to get your own personal perks, than to benefit your employer and your profession.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Jun 15, 2022 at 1:07
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    @NateEldredge: Good point, you should write that up as an answer.
    – Daniel R. Collins
    Commented Jun 15, 2022 at 1:43
  • @NateEldredge Good question. But no: writing them in would be cost sharing, which is not allowed by the sponsor. The perks are intended to provide support for other continued research (writing proposals, other projects, etc) concurrently with the funded project - not to support the funded project directly.
    – mrp
    Commented Jun 15, 2022 at 19:56
  • Taking this to the (unlikely) extreme: what happens if my university decides to change policy so my workload is 0% research, 80% teaching, and 20% service? Technically this would not change the time I spend on the project, but obviously it would limit my ability to do the work...
    – mrp
    Commented Jun 15, 2022 at 20:03
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    @mrp: If your contract prevents the university from doing this, then you have whatever recourse it provides. Otherwise, your ultimate recourse is to quit and take your valuable grant to some other institution that is more appreciative of your skills.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Jun 17, 2022 at 5:07

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Congratulations on the grant.

You can ask, politely but forcefully. One hopes with your Department Chair's strong support. If the granting agency knew about this policy when the grant was awarded that should strengthen your case.

If there is a faculty union they may take your side with the administration

I don't think you have any formal course of action.

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    If the reduction in other duties, to give more time to pursue the research funded by the grant was part of the proposal itself, then the university is probably obliged to either honor the reductions or give back the grant money.
    – Buzz
    Commented Jun 15, 2022 at 1:06
  • @Buzz: That seems like it should be a separate answer to the question (if NateEldredge, who made the same point on a comment to the question itself, doesn't write it up first.)
    – Michael Seifert
    Commented Jun 15, 2022 at 15:22
  • @MichaelSeifert Done.
    – Buzz
    Commented Jun 16, 2022 at 20:45
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    If the granting agency knew about this policy when the grant was awarded that should strengthen your case. How so? From OP’s comments it does not sound like the university is violating any of its obligations to the granting agency by rescinding the reduced teaching load benefit. That’s all the grant agency would (and should) care about.
    – Dan Romik
    Commented Jun 17, 2022 at 0:21
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However, I just learned that my college has abolished both of these benefits, supposedly because of budget cuts

Budget cuts are pretty common, so that's a plausible reason. You should probably complain, but I see little chance of getting the decision reversed. If you get your benefit back, the administration will have to cut something else in exchange. That is unlikely to appeal to them.

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It may make a difference what you said in the grant proposal. If the reduction in other duties, to give more time to pursue the research funded by the grant was part of the proposal itself, then the university is probably obliged to either honor the reductions or give back the grant money.

The key question is whether your proposal relied on the promise of reduced duties as one of its official selling points. If the grant was made with the explicit understanding that your other duties would be reduced, then your institution probably has an obligation to either provide the reduced teaching load or to give up the grant. Many external support proposals involve some commitment from the Principal Investigator's local institution. This could be cost sharing—where the local institution offers to shoulder part of the cost of the project if the grant agency provides the remainder. Or (and this is the case of relevance here) to institutional contribution could be releasing the PI from some other duties—to give the PI more time to concentrate on the funded research project. This reduction in duties could a lower (or even temporarily eliminated) teaching load, reduced service commitments, or a supported sabbatical.

Grant proposal packages often involve documents explicitly stating what resources will be required to complete the funded research, and which of these resources will be provided by the PI's own institution. If your proposal had documentation from your university that, if you received the award, you would have a lower teaching load during the funding period, then there it will not generally be possible for the institution to weasel out of that commitment. If they want you to be able to keep the award (and I assume that they do), they will have to honor the commitments that they made as part of the grant proposal.

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  • Unfortunately there is no binding language in the proposal. In fact, because cost sharing was not allowed, it would have been unallowable for the university to commit those resources.
    – mrp
    Commented Jun 17, 2022 at 21:05

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