Travel Funding Procedure
The Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty makes every effort to fund either one international or two domestic conference trips per faculty member during each fiscal period. Meeting this objective depends on the number and size of the amounts requested for travel, both of which vary throughout the year and can be hard to predict.
Our approach prioritizes travel focused on research, scholarship, creative activity, or professional development. Please specify if your trip is in the realm of teaching or pedagogy, considering these trips come from a different budget.
To obtain travel reimbursement approval, begin by filling out and submitting the travel request form:
In your travel requests, please provide the following information:
- whether you are presenting research and/or participating in the conference in other capacity (i.e. panel discussant, organizer, etc.). Travel requests including presentations will be prioritized.
- the exact dates of the event
- proof of acceptance to present (i.e. email notification)
- a link to the event program or a program in pdf form
- a detailed budget (including all costs related to travel, lodging total and nightly rates, registration fees, and meal rates from the GSA, link to which you can find below)
Once your trip is approved, you will receive an email notification from Ivo Gyurovski, at which point you are welcome and encouraged to make all travel arrangements.
Upon returning, please prepare an expense report, include all your itemized receipts, and submit to Tracey Dunn for the processing of the remainder of your reimbursement.
Additional Notes and Guidelines
Flights and Other Travel Arrangements
Please purchase your airline tickets at least six weeks in advance of the travel if possible. Past experience shows that many colleagues have purchased flight tickets very close to the event, which increases the total cost significantly. To help alleviate budgets, we will be happy to reimburse you for all booking costs as soon as you make these purchases — typically at the same time as the early registration fee for the conference.
Travel Dates
Past experience also shows that some colleagues extend their stay beyond the dates of the conference. If it is not feasible to arrive during the first day of the conference (i.e. early morning sessions), then plan to arrive no earlier than the day before it starts. We encourage you to leave no later than the last day of the conference. If you'd like to consider staying beyond the dates of the conference, you may do so at personal expense, but we ask that you carefully weigh those considerations and the needs of your students and teaching schedules.
Meal and Lodging Rates
Our office has implemented the guidelines adopted by the General Services Administration for domestic and the State Department for international rates as limits on meal and lodging costs. We use the GSA or SD rates only as limits, but we still need your itemized receipts. Therefore, you must submit itemized receipts. The College will reimburse you up to the amount specified by GSA or SD for food. No department or other College funds may be used to cover meal and/or lodging expenses in excess of the GSA and SD guideline. Please note the difference in rates for first, last, and full days of travel. You can find those here: United States Rates | International Rates
Use of Elliott Funds and Professorships Accounts
Depending on the size and the number of travel requests, we may have to combine funding sources including individual faculty Elliott funds and/or departmental professorships accounts. In the past, we have only requested the combining of funding sources in the event of a second trip during the same fiscal period, thereby absorbing the costs of the first trip beyond the typical $400 departmental contribution. Our Office will make every effort to continue this practice, depending on budgets and availability of funds.
Miscellaneous Travel Expenses
Please make sure your budgets include a breakdown of the miscellaneous travel expenses, which frequently include: mileage to and from the airport or train station, airport parking at the economy lot (you can stay at a more convenient lot at personal cost, but we reimburse up to the cost of the economy lot), ground transportation (taxi, uber, or public transit) at the destination. If driving to a conference, make sure to include the cost of daily parking at the hotel.