College Conference Travel Procedures For the 2022-2023 Academic Year

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

2. Grant Amounts (maximum per AY22-23)

  • Tenured and Tenure-Track: $3,000
  • NTT Full Time & Post Docs: $1,200
  • NTT Part-Time (long-serving): $725*

* 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 notice as possible, with a minimum of at least one month.  Requests will be approved on a first come, first serve basis. All requests are reviewed on a weekly basis.  Please allow 10 days for confirmation.

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 AY23. 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.

University Global Medical and Other Foreign Travel Coverage

If you will be traveling out of the country for W&L related travel please make sure to contact the Dean's Office prior to your trip. Register for University Global Medical and Other Foreign Travel Coverage, which provides comprehensive coverage for illness, injury, political unrest, and natural disaster, including evacuation and repatriation. W&L will provide you a medical insurance policy for the duration of your trip. The policy request must be submitted to the insurance company no later than 2 weeks prior to your departure date. Please give us plenty of notice so that we may have your policy in place and provide you with the needed proof prior to your departure. You can contact Erika Barajas at ebarajas@wlu.edu with any notifications of travel or questions you might have.

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).

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.

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 $74 and the low rate is $64. The federal 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.

Expense Report in WorkDay

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

Travelers must follow the Business Office travel guidelines. Travelers must also submit an Expense Report 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 expense report.