Proposed Faculty Handbook Revision: Guidelines for Faculty Travel Grants

Existing Language

2.12.1. Guidelines for Faculty Travel Grants

1. On an annual basis, faculty members may apply under Category A for funds to cover the costs of registration fees and transportation to meetings of professional societies in which they participate as speakers or as elected officials. Faculty members may apply under Category B for costs of registration fees or transportation to no more than one professional meeting, conference, symposium, workshop, or seminar per fiscal year in which the applicant is not a participant, as defined in guideline (d) below.
2. Air fare is to be at the least expensive rate available and subsequent ground transportation to the location of the meeting shall be at the shuttle rate. Car travel will be reimbursed at the regular College mileage rate.
3. Travel for purposes of research will be funded only under the Faculty Research Grant category.
4. Presenters, session organizers, discussants, and officials of national or regional (i.e., encompassing more than one state) organizations are eligible for funding from Category A of the Faculty Travel Fund.
5. Funds in Category B will always be limited.
6. The Faculty Development Committee will normally recommend funding under Category B only for faculty members who have completed one year of teaching at Mills. However, the Committee may recommend funding requests from first-year ranked faculty members, if funds are available.
7. Requests will be considered for specific meetings only.
8. Applications for funding to cover travel costs or registration fees for meetings between September 1 in a given calendar year and January 15 in the next calendar year must be submitted by the first week of October in the earlier calendar year. Applications for funding of travel costs or registration fees between January 16 and August 31 must be submitted by the first week of February. Note: this timing implies that some requests for funding are considered after the conference has taken place (e.g., a conference in September).
9. Requests submitted after the published deadline will be funded only if funds remain from that particular funding period. Retroactive funding for meetings already attended in a different period normally will not be considered. An exception will be made in cases where a faculty member did not know of her/his participation in a conference until after the deadline for applying for funding. In such cases, she/he should apply in the subsequent funding cycle.
10. Funds granted but not used must be returned to the College.
11. Individual faculty members will normally receive no more than $l,200 in any twelve-month period for travel reimbursement and registration fees.

Proposed Language

2.12.1  Guidelines for Faculty Travel Grants

1. Tenured and tenure-track faculty members, or non-tenure-track faculty members who teach at the College full-time for three or more consecutive years, may apply for funding to cover the cost of professional travel.
   
2. Funding will be considered for faculty members who act as presenters, session organizers, discussants, performers, exhibitors and elected officers at international, national and regional professional meetings, conferences, symposia, workshops or seminars to which they have been selected to participate by a program committee or formally invited by a host institution.
   
3. Whenever funds are available, funding may be considered for faculty members to attend international, national and regional professional meetings, conferences, symposia, workshops or seminars at which they are not presenters, session organizers, discussants, performers, exhibitors or elected officers.
   
4. Deadlines for submitting travel grant applications will be set by the Faculty Development Committee at the start of each academic year.  There will normally be two funding cycles during each academic year, one for events that take place between September 1 and December 31 and one for events that occur between January 1 and August 31.
   
5. An annual maximum amount of travel funds that can be awarded to each faculty member will be set by the Faculty Development Committee at the start of each academic year.
   
6.  Retroactive funding for events that faculty members have already attended will normally not be considered.  Exceptions may be made for cases in which the faculty member did not know of her/his participation until after the application deadline for the appropriate funding cycle.  In such cases, s/he must apply for funding in the cycle that immediately follows the event.
   
7.  Travel for research purposes will be funded only by Faculty Research Grants.
   
8.  Funds that are granted but not used must be returned to the College.