Faculty Travel Award

Faculty Travel Award Fund: 2024-2025

Please submit all items (questions, applications and reports) via email to the Committee on Professional Development and Retraining at:

facultytravel@groups.mcla.edu

The Faculty Travel Award fund supports faculty travel for purposes of professional development and scholarship. Travel Awards are available in amounts not to exceed more than $1,000 per academic year. For the 2024-2025 academic year, the total amount available will be divided among Fall (August 1 – 31 Dec), and Spring (1 Jan – 30 Jun) terms; the start-date of travel determines which term the Award falls into, as defined above. Travel Awards are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis among all qualifying applications, until the term’s fund is exhausted. Any unused balance at the end of a term will be rolled into the next term, within the same fiscal year. No funds will roll from one fiscal year into another.

The body reviewing Travel Award applications is the Committee on Professional Development and Retraining, formed according to the MSCA contract (Art. XIV, p. 243 in the 2020-2023 Agreement), composed of three (3) faculty members appointed by the MCLA Chapter President and two (2) staff/administration members confirmed by the President.

Who is Eligible?

All tenure-track and tenured MCLA faculty in at least their 2^nd year. (1^st-year faculty are already guaranteed support for their first-year conference, and therefore are not eligible to apply for this Award.)

Restrictions:

No faculty member may receive more than one (1) Travel Award per academic year.

No Travel Award can be used, in whole or in part, to:

1. Self-fund a stipend;
2. Pay guest speakers;
3. Travel with students to professional meetings or conferences (such as NCUR).
4. Faculty members are expected to only request reimbursement for travel costs that they personally incur and that are not already covered by other sources.

Separate funds are available for these opportunities, such as through Undergraduate Research, and the Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs will endeavor to assist such initiatives.

Application Process and Requirements:

To qualify for the Travel Award, the following four (4) items must be completed and submitted to the Committee no later than 30 calendar days before the official posted starting date of the conference:

• One (1) completed budget detailing your expenses related to the conference.
• One (1) copy of written approval from your Department Chair in support of your travel (email is acceptable).
• One (1) copy of the official Call for Papers for the conference.
• If you are presenting: one (1) copy of your notification of acceptance from a conference organizer; OR
• If you are NOT presenting: a statement of purpose describing what you intend to learn by attending.

You will receive notification about the status of your application via email. If approved, you must complete the required Travel Approval Dynamic Form that will be delivered via email.

• Final approval, and disbursement of funds, is contingent upon VPAA signature.

No later than 30 calendar days after the official posted end-date of the conference, the following two (2) items must be submitted to the Committee:

• A copy of your completed Travel Reimbursement Dynamic Form
• A brief report on the conference you attended, detailing the professional value of the experience.

Please note that failure to meet this reporting requirement will render the recipient ineligible for future Faculty Travel Awards.

Please submit all items (questions, applications and reports) via email to the Committee on Professional Development and Retraining at:

facultytravel@groups.mcla.edu

The current members of the Committee on Professional Development and Retraining are: