Goucher Instructors

Goucher Instructors' Reimbursement Procedures for Travel, Research and Other Writing Program Related Expenses

All Writing Fellows, Half- and Part-Time Faculty:

Minor expenses can be reimbursed from the Writing Program's Supplies and Materials budget. These may include purchase of teaching materials, office supplies, appropriate software for use on Van Meter and/or home office computers, and support for class-related special events in the Baltimore area. For items costing more than $10, please email or phone the Writing Program Director in advance to make sure your purchase can be covered from this extremely limited budget. Also remember that software installed by faculty on Van Meter office computers are the faculty member's responsibility to maintain, though routine advice can be obtained from Computing Services (x6322).

Writing Fellows (FT instructional staff):

For travel to professional conferences and special collections, as well as other research related expenses, the college usually offers full-time faculty assistance totaling $1500 per year (i.e., full-time faculty support). These funds are controlled by the Faculty Affairs Committee, and you must apply to them in advance for permission to use the funds for the purposes you have in mind. Usually a few weeks is enough time, and in reasonable circumstances the procedure can be speeded up. Email Joyce Craft (x6039) to initiate the process, explaining clearly the relevance of your request to your teaching or research needs and enumerating as accurately as you can the ways in which the money will be spent. If you are in doubt about whether your project will fit their definition of an appropriate use of the funds, email or phone the Writing Program Director for preliminary advice. Joyce Craft or the chair of the committee would have the best sense of the committee's rules.

        When the Faculty Affairs Committee has reviewed your request, you will receive an email confirming the amount of support they can provide. These funds will be tagged as "encumbered" for your use in the Academic Dean's Office, and once that paperwork is cleared, you are free to call upon it for reimbursement. But remember that it may only be used in support of your stated research or travel request. If you have questions regarding this procedure, please contact Joyce Craft (x6039 or x6044) in the Academic Dean's Office.

         As usual when requesting professional reimbursement, you always should get and save receipts for all of your expenses. For reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses, you should attach your *original* receipts to a travel expense form. This form is available online in the following public folder:
   Forms, Controller's Office Forms
      Document name: "TRAVEL EXPENSE FORM.doc"
This form is also available at the URL: http://phoenix.goucher.edu/faculty/. You will be required to submit the receipts along with your request to the Academic Dean's Office for reimbursement. If you anticipate charging expenses on a credit card, please contact the Controller's Office to arrange for a Goucher College credit card and tax identification number card. Keep in mind that you will not be reimbursed for sales taxes erroneously charged to you if you fail to inform the vendor that the purchase is being made by a tax-exempt not-for-profit institution.

In some years, due to heavy demand, the budget line from which these funds are drawn can become depleted during the second semester. In those instances, FAC must reduce the support it provides to subsequent requests in order to stay within its budget. Usually, this involves an attempt to ration the remaining funds to those faculty who have not yet asked for support, and sometimes restricting the total reimbursed for all remaining requests below the ordinary level of support. To prevent yourself from being caught in this situation, faculty should plan their year's probable research and professional travel needs in July and August of the preceding summer if possible. If you cannot know that soon whether you will be able to attend a conference (e.g., paper proposal reply deadlines late in the first or early in the second semester), it may be worth contacting FAC in December or January to determine the current state of the reimbursement fund account.

Half-Time Faculty:

For travel to professional conferences and special collections, as well as other research related expenses, the college usually offers half-time faculty assistance totaling $750 per year (i.e., half the full-time faculty support). These funds are controlled by the Faculty Affairs Committee, and you must apply to them in advance for permission to use the funds for the purposes you have in mind. Usually a few weeks is enough time, and in reasonable circumstances the procedure can be speeded up. Email Joyce Craft (x6039) to initiate the process, explaining clearly the relevance of your request to your teaching or research needs and enumerating as accurately as you can the ways in which the money will be spent. If you are in doubt about whether your project will fit their definition of an appropriate use of the funds, email or phone the Writing Program Director for preliminary advice. Joyce Craft or the chair of the committee would have the best sense of the committee's rules.

Part-Time Faculty:

Though the college provides no dedicated financial support to part-time faculty for research and professional travel, the Writing Program sometimes can assist them. When the amount of money involved is not large, and when the purpose of your project clearly relates to improving your ability to teach Writing Program courses, you can ask the Writing Program Director for guidance about the possibility of support. Keep in mind that the program's budget is extremely limited, and that funds must be kept in reserve to insure support for regularly scheduled operations of the Writing Center and ordinary support for all writing faculty. The best time for such inquiries usually is in May or June, when we near the end of the budget year and can predict with some assurance how much of our yearly budget allocation remains unspent. Please do not commit yourself to anything contingent upon the possibility of this assistance.

If you received a stipend for attendance at a workshop or other professional development opportunities run by the Writing Program, the funds will be disbursed in your monthly paycheck.