Faculty Professional Travel

Each full-time member of the faculty (including faculty on one-year appointments), excluding those who already possess travel support as holders of endowed or rotational chairs or as recipients of special research support funds, will be granted $2,000 toward travel in support of research or creative activity needs.

Examples of such needs include travel to professional conferences (for purposes of participation or attendance); travel to libraries, archives, laboratories, or performances (for purposes of information collection and study); and travel for purposes of professional collaboration or conducting interviews (when directly relevant to research or creative activity).

Expenses to be covered include:

• reimbursement for transportation costs, registration or admission fees, lodging costs, and professional memberships (when such memberships enable reduced costs for conference attendance);
• a supplement for meals not to exceed $50 per day.

You may combine this year′s $2,000 increment with funds banked from last year′s allowance. Recall that travel funds now have the ability to roll-over from year to year. Individuals are free to accumulate unused portions of their travel allotments for use in future years (up to a maximum balance of $5,000). This change allows for greater flexibility when professional travel straddles two fiscal years. It also allows for longer-range planning.

This travel program grants faculty members the freedom to use funds for travel toward those research and/or creative ends they find most vital to their professional development. Such freedom, of course, also carries with it the responsibility of carefully weighing how best to deploy the available funds.

From time to time there are extraordinary opportunities for faculty travel associated with professional development that require funding well beyond the limits established in the policy above. Although such funds are very limited, the College will do all that it can to support a faculty member in taking advantage of such opportunities. Please address all faculty travel requests of this nature to the Office of Academic Affairs.

Faculty Professional Travel Advance Requests and Faculty Professional Travel Expense Reports (both forms are yellow) will be available in the Bursar’s and the Comptroller′s Office. Completed forms should be submitted directly to the Administrative Assistant in the Comptroller′s Office. Receipts for expenses incurred, along with the Expense Report that summarizes the expenses incurred, must be submitted no later than ten days after the last day of travel. This due date is necessary in order to maintain proper accounting of requests and to process the reimbursements efficiently. Although there is no “approval” required for such travel, faculty members will be held accountable for the appropriateness of all travel for which travel funds are drawn.