Dean's Supplemental Travel Fund

Faculty Travel Guidelines for 2023-2024

The Dean's Supplemental Travel Fund Request Guidelines and Procedures were created to govern a system for funding faculty travel for the College of Arts & Sciences. Under this system each department will award travel funds to faculty members at the chair’s discretion. Chairs have been charged with putting in place a policy for allocating their departmental travel funds. Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences also will have the opportunity to submit proposals to request additional funds from the dean’s office. These funds will be available to faculty members who have exhausted their departmental funds. In general, these funds can be used only for additional travel of the types listed under “Eligibility” below. A committee appointed by the Dean serves in an advisory capacity reviewing proposals and making recommendations to the Dean regarding the amount of funding. The committee's goal is to provide substantial supplementary funds to support all Arts and Sciences faculty who need more than their departments' allocations to engage in "active participation" in a variety of scholarly venues.

FUNDING LIMITS

Combined departmental and college funding will be limited to $1500 for any single domestic trip and $2000 for any single international trip. While the number of trips is unrestricted, total funding per academic year is limited to $3000.

If faculty anticipate higher costs for a single trip or expect to exceed a total of $3000 for all travel for the academic year, they may make a case for funds beyond these limits when submitting requests to the Travel Committee. Please be sure to show that the travel will result in "substantial benefit for the university.” To ensure all faculty have funding opportunities, awards may initially only cover amounts up to the standard limits, with requests held and reconsidered for additional funding later in the academic year subject to funding availability. In any case, if the committee or our office elects to observe the standard limit, faculty will need to cover the difference with their own funds (or, of course, elect not to travel).

ELIGIBILITY

The Dean’s Supplemental Travel Fund is intended for faculty involved in some form of active participation in a conference or other scholarly venue, as well as faculty engaged in research or creative work. Below are some forms of active participation. The lower the number the higher the priority is.

  1. Presenting a paper/poster/creative work, etc. on original research
  2. Serving on a panel or being a discussant
  3. Chairing a session
  4. Serving as a board member
  5. Conducting book/field/archival research

Faculty wishing to present their research do not need to have an acceptance letter in hand. The committee may rank proposals as if they were already accepted, but such proposals ultimately might not be funded if their papers or other scholarly presentations are not accepted.

Furthermore, the committee will give higher priority to tenure-track and tenured professors who have not yet reached the rank of professor, since these faculty have greater need for opportunities to present their research.

Faculty who need to travel for administrative purposes—to work on accreditation, for instance—are eligible for funding from Academic Affairs; they should submit the standard Chrome River Preapproval and attach a note explaining the nature of the administrative travel.

APPROVAL PROCEDURE

To request supplemental funding, CAS faculty must complete a Qualtrics survey and a Preapproval in Chrome River. They will need to include the following pieces of information with the requested attached documentation demonstrating the purpose of travel.

  1. Purpose of travel – Please carefully describe the purpose of travel as this information will be used by the committee to determine the recommendation for funding. (Example: “Present paper at SERMACS” or “Chair session at MLA conference.”)
  2. Total cost of the trip
  3. Additional funding sources if any
  4. If exceeding the funding amounts described above, attach demonstration of ‘substantial benefit for the university’.
  5. If available, evidence of acceptance - If evidence of acceptance is not available, requesters should indicate “acceptance pending” and include a copy of the meeting solicitation.

Proposals will be evaluated by the Travel Committee, which will make recommendations to the Dean. International travel may also require approval by the Chancellor.

DEADLINES

Priority will go to requests submitted by October 6. Faculty members are strongly encouraged to submit requests by the October 6 priority deadline to allow the committee to allocate funds early in the academic year. If there is money remaining in the Dean’s Supplemental Travel Fund, the committee will review travel requests on a monthly basis. The committee recognizes that some faculty may wish to travel prior to the priority deadline; therefore, travel requests will be reviewed prior to this date. The cutoff date for the fiscal year will be around June 1; thus, if you plan to travel in June, travel expenses may count against next year's allocations.

Please be sure to submit your Qualtrics survey response AND your preapproval report in Chrome River at least 30 days in advance of your trip departure date.

NOTIFICATION OF DECISION

Communication about funding is made in Chrome River. In the comments of the preapprovals, we will indicate how much CAS can cover.  We recommend that you track the approval process in Chrome River.