Faculty Professional Development Fund

Instructions

Who gets money? How much?

All full-time and part-time faculty are eligible to apply for funding from the Professional Development Fund.

Full-time faculty:

The per person per year maximum from the fund is $1000. In cases of 100% funding (see below), this is matched 200% by the DAA’s office for a total maximum of up to $3000.

Part-time faculty:

The per person per year limit from the fund is $250. In cases of 100% funding (see below), this is matched 100% by the DAA’s office for a total maximum of up to $500.

The percentage of your expenses that will be covered depends on the nature of your activity. Some examples include:

Expenses covered 100% for:

·  Presenting at a conference (paper, poster, workshop, etc.).

·  Attending a conference, workshop, mini-course, etc. that is required for accreditation.

·  Travel that is necessary for research activities.

·  Travel that is necessary to perform or exhibit an artistic work.

·  Attending a conference that is required to maintain certification or licensure in your area.


Expenses covered 50% for:

·  Attending a conference or other job-related travel that does not fall into one of the above categories. In this case, the other 50% is the applicant’s responsibility, although outside funding may be used to cover it.

Please note that this list is not intended to be exhaustive! If you require funding for an activity that is not listed here, please contact the committee to discuss the appropriate funding level.

Applicants are encouraged to seek other sources of funding, such as their academic departments or the University College. A list of funding sources available to faculty can be found on the Mont Alto Faculty Senate web page.

After April 1 of each year, if funds are still available then faculty who have already been funded are invited to apply for additional awards, either to cover the other half of a proposal that was funded at 50% or to fund amounts above their annual allotment. Faculty who have not been funded or are under their allotment will still have priority, but because funds do not roll over from one year to the next this allows us to make full use of the funds that are available each year.

Finally, faculty who are awarded PDF funds are strongly encouraged to give a talk to the campus community at either the semi-annual Mont Alto Day of Enrichment or as part of the Faculty-Staff Colloquy series. This allows the entire campus to benefit from the professional development activities funded by the PDF. Plus, it’s fun!

To apply for funding

1.  Download the Professional Development Fund application, which can be found on the Mont Alto Faculty Senate web page. Please complete the Excel version of the form. The Word version has been removed from the website since the Excel version is much easier for the committee to use.

2.  Fill out the form with your expected expenses. Please note that international travel must be approved by the DAA’s office before funding is requested!

3.  Attach documentation for these estimates, as follows:

  1. Conference fees from the conference web site. **Please submit a copy of the acceptance letter for conference presentations or other activities as appropriate.
  2. Hotel rates from the hotel’s web site or the conference web site.
  3. Airline costs from PSU Travel Services, a travel web site (Expedia, Priceline, etc.), or the airline’s web site. Note that airfare will only be reimbursed up to the lowest amount projected in the Travel Services estimate for your travel date for federally funded projects. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that the airfare in the proposal is within that estimate.
  4. Mileage from a mapping site (Google maps, Mapquest, etc.). The current mileage rate is available on Guru.
  5. Per diem for meals from Guru. Note that the per diem must be adjusted if meals are provided at the conference. The per diem is pro-rated as follows: 20% for breakfast, 30% for lunch, and 50% for dinner. Please make sure your application makes the necessary adjustments.
  6. Other expenses as appropriate: parking, tolls, etc. To the extent that it is possible to provide documentation for these expenses, please do so (parking fees at a hotel, for example). If such documentation is not available, provide a reasonable explanation of your estimate. Don’t forget to include baggage fees.

4.  Submit the form and documentation to the current Chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee (David Seitz, , 2016-17). The committee only accepts electronic submissions. Documentation may be submitted electronically, in the form of links to web sites pasted into a Word document (please make a note of which expense is documented by which link) or scanned files.


After your application is received, you get a confirmation from the Chair of the FAC. The committee will review your request, and you will be notified within two academic weeks of either a decision or of the need for additional information.

Getting reimbursement

Note that you will only be reimbursed for you actual expenses, up to the amount of your award. If, for example, your flight was less expensive than the estimate in your application, your award will be reduced to the amount that reflects that.

Here are worksheets for CONUS and OCONUS:

Checklist for ERS Travel - CONUS (https://guru.psu.edu/forms/checklistforERSTravel-CONUS.pdf)

Checklist for ERS Travel - OCONUS (https://guru.psu.edu/forms/checklistforERSTravel-OCONUS.pdf)

To be reimbursed, you must:

1.  Submit an expense report and original receipts to the Staff Assistant to the Director of Academic Affairs. It is wise to keep a copy of these for your records as well.

WAIT! You’re not done!

2.  The Staff Assistant will scan your information into ERS. When that is done, you will get an email prompting you to log in to ERS and officially submit the Expense Report. If you do not do this, your request will not be submitted, and you will not get reimbursed! Furthermore, your request must be submitted within 60 days of the time of your travel! If it is not, you will not get reimbursed. This is a University policy and will not change no matter how much you beg. Trust us on this.

3.  Now you’re done. Your reimbursement will be direct deposited into your account and you will be notified by email.


Other Useful Information

General information about PSU-related travel is available on the Travel Services page.

Information about the reimbursement process is available on ERS. This is also where you will log in to submit your reimbursement request.

In addition to the general PSU information, Mont Alto has its own policy document on travel reimbursement, which is available on the Business Services web page.

And a few tips from fellow faculty:

·  Funding is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Please submit your application as early as possible – ideally before you travel – to ensure that the funding you seek is available! This also allows the Faculty Affairs Committee to more accurately gauge how much funding may be left at the end of the year, and to plan accordingly.

·  Remember the 60 day rule! It is, sadly, not flexible. Although you can receive additional funding later on for a proposal that has already been submitted, you cannot submit a proposal more than 60 days after your travel.

·  Be sure to have international travel approved ahead of time to avoid delays in processing your request.

·  Don’t purchase travel packages! It is very difficult to get reimbursed properly for these.

·  If you are not purchasing airline tickets through PSU, be sure your airfare is less than or equal to the amount of the least expensive itinerary specified by Travel Services for you travel dates. You will only be reimbursed up to that amount, so if you choose a different itinerary (for example, a direct flight or one that does not leave at 4 a.m.) you will be responsible for the price difference.