Fellowship Guidance

Effective July 1, 2019, faculty must use the Cayuse system for routing and approval of fellowship applications before submission to the sponsor. This new procedure is being implemented to allow adequate time for Department Chairs and the Office of the Dean of the College to plan course schedules and to allocate resources if the fellowship is awarded. In most cases, fellowship applications are submitted by the faculty member applying and awards received are made directly to an individual. However, faculty should discuss their applications with their Department Chair, Office of the Dean of the College, and ORSP staff. ORSP staff routinely work with proposal budgets, are familiar with many award terms and conditions, and can assist faculty in the application process. Travel awards paid directly to a faculty member should be reported here. Cayuse does not need to be used when awards are only for travel expenses given to an individual.

When a fellowship award is made directly to a faculty member, that individual is responsible for all taxes and determining how to continue with Wake Forest health and dental insurance, if desired. In some cases, the sponsor will make the award to the University, which lets faculty maintain fringe benefits paid through payroll deduction. If an applicant chooses to have a fellowship administered by WFU, and wants to use the award to be relieved of some teaching and service duties, then award funds must be used for academic year base salary and benefits at the currently budgeted rates. Faculty may receive the balance of funds as summer salary, with associated benefits, if allowed by the granting agency.

If a fellowship may not be used for fringe benefits or is insufficient to cover both salary and fringe benefits during the award period, then every effort should be made to coordinate the timing of the fellowship with a Reynolds or junior leave application. Such requests must be made in advance of submission, so the Office of the Dean of the College can plan for these expenses. Reynolds leaves are awarded on a competitive basis and are thus not guaranteed. In general, WFU will commit resources to a WFU approved fellowship application when required to do so by the sponsor and the resources are available.

Even if the fellowship will not be administered by WFU, faculty should let their Department Chair and the Office of the Dean of the College know when they submit an application, so that these units can plan for personnel and budget resources to cover leave requests.