Department of Government

The Government Department's Grad Student Travel Funding Request Policy for the 2009-10 academic year is outlined below.  We are pleased to announce that the annual travel subsidy for graduate students has been increased to $500 per student this academic year; contingent on availability of funds & prior approval from the DGS (Marc Howard) or Chair (George Shambaugh).  Please note that this policy only pertains to conferences taking place during the current academic year; August - May.  No funding is available during the summer months of June and July. All requests for reimbursement must submitted by May 1st for any given academic year.

All requests for Departmental funding need to be submitted via the attached Conference Travel Request Form at least three weeks prior to the conference.  Pending availability and approval, funds normally will be provided only to students presenting papers or posters at a conference. If you are going to APSA, please request funding ASAP. We will keep a file of all approved forms and will refer to them when processing your reimbursement request.

MA students in Government may request travel support but are expected to exhaust travel support offered by their respective MA programs prior to doing so.

Awards will be based on funding availability. If you are scheduled to participate in a conference taking place later in the year (ISA, WPSA, etc.), please submit your travel funding request as soon as possible. Later, if you decide not to attend, please let me know in writing via e-mail so that the money may be given to another student. Likewise, if you anticipate other sources of funding, please disclose this information in advance so that others less fortunate (i.e. without other sources of funding), may be have priority consideration. (Reason being, because we have limited funds, we would prefer to help those students without any source of funding. I understand that in so doing you may, in effect, preclude yourself from receiving department funding; however, and more importantly, you will be helping a fellow graduate student receive funding, as well as ensure that funds are distributed as fairly as possible.)

In fairness to others, requests for reimbursement will not be accepted without prior approval. Additionally, please note that the Department can only reimburse for the following types of expenses:
transportation (air, car, train, bus, cabs), accommodations (hotel, motel, inn, or hostel) and registration fees.

Upon your return, please submit your request for reimbursement to Justin Harried with a memo outlining the costs and attach the respective original receipts. Because of the large influx of requests that come through our office, reimbursement requests will normally be submitted to Financial Affairs on the 1st and 15th of each month.

In fairness to others, requests for reimbursement will not be accepted without prior funding approval.  Additionally, please note that the Department can only reimburse for the following types of expenses: transportation (air, car, train, bus, cabs), accommodations (hotel, motel, inn, or hostel) and registration fees.  All other types of expenses need special approval from the Chair for reimbursement.
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General reimbursement procedures: In the interest of keeping the reimbursement processing flowing in our office, please adhere to the following procedures when submitting this and any other requests for reimbursement:

1. All reimbursements must be accompanied by a signed memo
indicating the purpose of the expense(s) as well as an itemized
list of the costs. If you are seeking reimbursement from a
particular account or source of funding, please indicate that as
well. If your reimbursement comes from a non-GOVT account, you
will need to submit your reimbursement to the appropriate
department; we cannot process reimbursements from other department
accounts.

2. All original receipts must be included and taped on a separate
sheet of paper. Financial Affairs does not process loose or
stapled receipts. Email confirmations do not constitute as
receipts. Receipts must include the proof of transaction (amount,
payment method) information. For credit card purchases you may
also submit your statement listing the charge if a receipt is not
available or lost.

3. Please note that airfare and train reimbursements require that
you keep and submit all original boarding passes and receipts.

4. If you are traveling abroad, you will also need to provide
documentation of the exchange rate for the currency of the
expenses. This can easily be done by going to sites like
http://www.xe.net/ucc/ and printing the calculated exchange rate.

5. If you are seeking reimbursement for any business mileage use of
your personal vehicle, please note that as of January 2009,
reimbursement rate for this cost is 55 cents per mile. You will
also need to include a printed out map evidencing the distance in
miles. Again, sites like http://www.mapquest.com/ are very useful
with this.

All reimbursement requests not adhering to the above policy will be returned and significant delays may result.

We understand the the above procedures may seem cumbersome, but please note that these procedures are part of the greater University-wide financial policies, and we must comply. Any questions or concerns, please let the staff know.