Purpose
Units within the School of Education (SoE) may wish to provide a zero-dollar appointment to an individual that has a business reason for UW-Madison NetID, email, and system access.
Eligibility
- Visiting Scholars/honorary fellows
- Individuals collaborating with a current project on research
- Individuals closing out research duties after ending a paid position
Zero Dollar appointments are not appropriate for alumni or donors who have university affiliations who wish to keep their university email and systems access. They should only be set up if a working relationship is established with your department.
Process
- If the individual is performing work that should be paid for by UW-Madison, departments will determine if employment or independent contracting is appropriate prior to submitting a zero-dollar request: External Services (wisc.edu).
- Prepare and submit a Zero Dollar Request Form, which can be found on the School of Education’s Business Office Website
- Occasionally, a department will wish to designate a visiting professor, visiting scientist, or other appropriate zero-dollar unclassified title.
- The sponsoring unit must demonstrate that there are good institutional reasons why a title other than OT006 Honorary Associate/Honorary Fellow is more appropriate.
- Divisional Human Resources will review the request.
- If approved at the division level, the approved appointment title will be added to the request form.
- If approval cannot be granted, Divisional HR will reach out to discuss. If needed, we will work with the Office of Human Resources and Compliance to determine the best course of action.
- The department will enter the appointment in JEMS and email an appointment letter to the appointee, CC’ing hr@education.wisc.edu.
To request an extension or update to a current Zero-Dollar appointment, email your department’s HR Manager with a justification for the request. Extensions will be granted on an annual basis but can be longer if there is a justification/reason for extending past one year (examples: program ends in over one year, grant that person is assisting on may go longer, etc.)
Information needed when submitting a request to Human Resources
- Confirmation the department completed a check to ensure that an independent contractor/paid employment position is more appropriate than a $0 appointment.
- Explanation of what the benefit is to the department, its faculty, programs, or students for this zero-dollar request. What services/expertise does the individual provide the project and/or department? Will the individual be working in person, hybrid, or remotely? Will they be working locally, or out-of-state? Why is a net-ID essential to the work being done?
- Explanation of why a zero-dollar position is appropriate vs. a paid position
- List the name of the faculty or academic contact (person authorizing the request for a zero-dollar appointment).
- Indicate the duration of the appointment (no longer than two years).
- Indicate the candidate’s source of financial support. Since this is a zero-dollar appointment, the university wants to know how the individual is being paid.
- If a visiting international visiting scholar, the Check or Money Order for the administrative fee, or approval of waiver of the fee, must be uploaded.
Visiting and Honorary Appointments
Units within the School of Education (SoE) may wish to provide a Visiting/Honorary appointment to an individual so they will have official University status during their period of affiliation with the University.
The most common form of such affiliation is an appointment as a OT006 Honorary Associate/Honorary Fellow. As defined in Unclassified Title Guidelines, “this title designates the holder of a fellowship (usually postdoctoral) administered outside the University or a courtesy appointment for a visiting scholar. This temporary appointment is used to provide an official University affiliation and identification without pay.”
Appointments of this type must be of mutual benefit to both the individual and to the School of Education/UW-Madison. All Visiting/Honorary appointments must have prior approval from the School of Education Business Office.
The hosting department should provide a document to the Visiting/Honorary Associate which summarizes important information regarding Visiting/Honorary appointments.
The document should include a summary of:
- Accesses and rights provided to Visiting/Honorary appointees.
- Issues supervisor/mentor, chair/director, and appointees should discuss regarding the appointment.
- Compliance information.
- Intellectual property information.
- Sponsored research information.
Occasionally, a department will wish to designate a visiting professor, visiting scientist, or other appropriate zero-dollar unclassified title. In those cases, the sponsoring unit must demonstrate that there are good institutional reasons why a title other than OT006Honorary Associate/Honorary Fellow is more appropriate. Former Faculty should be hired as emeritus unless they are hired for another job function.
School of Education Policy on International Visiting Scholars
Our academic community benefits greatly from the presence of visiting international scholars. There are responsibilities borne by School of Education faculty and staff associated with international visiting scholars. To ensure clarity in responsibilities, we adopt the following processes and policies.
- The process for accepting visiting scholars is within the responsibility of the departments/units. Departments are expected to submit their policy to the Global Education Committee for information purposes.
- An individual faculty or staff member must sponsor each visiting scholar. Individual sponsors are expected to take an active role in the scholar’s visit.
- Departments/ units may choose to set limits on the number of scholars an individual may sponsor.
- When considering an application of a visiting scholar, the department/unit must review:
- The visitor’s reason for the visit
- The visitor’s plan for research/ study
- The visitor’s language proficiency
- The department’s capacity to support the scholar
- At the conclusion of their stay, each visiting scholar is expected to provide a report of the visit to the Global Education Committee.
- Visiting scholars may observe classes with prior permission of the instructor. If an individual wishes to audit a course, campus regulations (including fees) apply.
Visiting scholars will pay an administrative fee of $300 to the School of Education to cover administrative costs such as appointment processing, technology connections, etc. (Effective for appointments with start dates on/after July 1, 2013.). Some departments may require higher fees.
The administrative fee shall be split as follows: 1/3 to the School of Education and 2/3 to the department/unit.
Departments may petition the Business Office for the waiver of this fee (for reasons such as reciprocity of the visit) or they may waive their portion of this fee. Alternatively, a department may fund the full fee.
Waiver requests, department waiver decisions, and/or department decisions to fund the full fee should be emailed to the Business Office Finance Team.
The $300 check or money order, made payable to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, should be included with the Zero Dollar Request Form. Some departments may require higher fees.
Summary of Information for Visiting/Honorary Appointments
Visiting appointees to research, teaching, and outreach programs in the School of Education should be appointed on a Visiting/Honorary Appointment within the department in which they will affiliate during their time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Under a visiting/honorary appointment, the appointee should have access to departmental research facilities, office and/or laboratory space as appropriate, and access to colleagues. In addition, they should have all rights accorded to University of Wisconsin-Madison visiting appointees, including the use of libraries.
Visiting/honorary appointees should discuss with their sponsoring department their
appointment type, campus/department policies/procedures, enrollment procedures, accesses, rights and expectations involving research and intellectual property, and liability/insurance issues.
The departments will provide an official appointment letter for the individual when the appointment is finalized (see appointment letter template).
The University of Wisconsin-Madison does not waive costs for visitors to enroll in classes. Visitors would have the option to apply for enrollment through Admissions at http://www.wisc.edu/admissions/ Dependent upon the enrollment type appropriate for the visitor (e.g., graduate, professional, special, guest), procedures and costs will vary.
The UW-Madison requires investigators to satisfy compliance requirements when conducting research involving animal care and use, human subjects, or stem cells, as well as biological safety (basic), radiation safety, and/or chemical safety. Information about these compliance requirements can be found here.
Visiting/honorary appointees are encouraged to visit this website and to discuss with their Chair, Director, or research mentor how to meet the compliance requirements listed.