College Conference Travel Procedures For the 2020-2021 Academic Year (updated July 1, 2020)

Conference Travel Grants

1. Introduction

The College is pleased to support the scholarly endeavors of our faculty, instructors, post-doctoral fellows and long-standing Visiting faculty. Subject to budgetary limits each fiscal year, grants for conference travel will be reviewed for eligible travelers, detailed below, with the goal of allowing up to two trips per year in order to maximize opportunities for contribution to the academy and continued professional development.

The College strongly recommends that your first request is within a formal capacity to ensure prioritization of requests and funding.

A minimum of one request must be in a formal capacity, including:

  • Delivering a paper at a meeting
  • Chairing a session
  • Participating as an invited discussant in a session
  • Be otherwise involved as an officer

The Dean’s Office will notify faculty when non-committed funding falls below 20% of remaining funds available.

2. Grant Amounts (maximum per FY21)

  • Tenured and Tenure-Track: $3,300
  • NTT Full Time & Post Docs: $1,350
  • NTT Part-Time (long-serving): $800*

* Note: minimum 3 course-load per year for 3 consecutive years with Chair support.

Individual talks given at other universities or institutes are not eligible under the fund.

3. Encouraged Time Lines

Understanding opportunities are not always known far in advance, the Dean’s Office encourages faculty to submit requests with as much advanced warning as possible with a minimum of one month in advance, requests will be approved on a first come, first serve basis. All requests are reviewed on a weekly basis.

4. Application Guidelines

In order to ensure the most equitable use of travel funds to benefit all College faculty, the following guidelines have been updated starting FY21. Applicants must submit the online request via this web form:

  • Description of your research presentation, official role, or other capacity
  • Description and URL links to the conference proceedings

Estimated cost of eligible travel expenses: registration, airfare, hotel, mileage, auto rental, ground transportation; include any financial support from your department for your conference.

All applications must be submitted through the web form on the Dean of the College website.

5. Reimbursable Expenses

  • Air travel: submit original airline passenger receipt and proof of payment.
  • Conference registration fees: attach a copy of your conference registration form along with the agenda and proof of payment (credit card receipt, statement or canceled check). Please note that while Membership Dues may be allowable expenses through University policy, they are not considered travel and are not reimbursable through this grant and must be submitted directly to the Business Office.

6. Process

  1. Review College Guidelines for Reimbursable Expenses and related University policies.
  2. Submit the conference travel request form within the above time line or at least one month in advance of travel.
  3. Receive approval email with grant details from Dean of the College Office.
  4. Submit a completed disbursement voucher for all pre-paid expenses to the Dean of the College Office.
  5. Submit a travel disbursement voucher for all other trip expenses within one month of travel.

The University has adopted the high-low per diem method for travel related Meals and Incidental Expense (M&IE) for the lower 48 continental US. The high per diem rate is $71 and the low rate is $60. The feral regulations have also changed related to travel locations that may use the high per diem rate. Please see the Business Office website for the updated list of the high per diem rate locations. The local meal rate does not change.

The per diem method does not require maintaining receipts for meals and incidentals. Travel days receive 75% of the per diem rate for the day.

Conference Travel Request Form

When completing the conference travel request form, please fill out the form in its entirety. In general, an eligible trip should fall in the range specified for the position held. Priority will be given to formal roles, i.e. presenting a referred or invited paper; organizing and presiding at a special session of a program; holding a major office in a professional association or society and required to attend its annual meeting; or giving an artistic performance or exhibition and so on. Travelers may request funding for a second meeting if meeting the above guidelines or for professional development purposes.

Disbursement Voucher

Travelers wishing to be reimbursed for pre-paid airfare and/or registration prior to conference travel, should submit an Expense Voucher in Work Day and indicate on the form that this is a travel advance for authorized travel and list the conference and dates. This travel advance should then be recorded on the Travel Expense Voucher.

Travel Voucher

Travelers must follow the Business Office travel guidelines. Travelers must also submit an Expense Voucher in Work Day for all trip expenses, whether charged to a University credit card, personal credit card or paid by cash or check, within 60 days of return. Please work with your department Administrative Assistant to complete the travel voucher. T