1.9 Graduate Student Travel and Support

1.9.1 Graduate student international travel

Per Graduate College guidance, the following information refers to graduate students who will be traveling outside of the United States.

1. All students must register for ISU-related international travel.
   • If a graduate student is traveling to complete coursework, and ISU is not paying for any part of their travel, they need to register at isuabroad.iastate.edu. This kind of travel is considered study abroad. The student will be billed for ISU’s required travel insurance.
   • If a graduate student is traveling to present at a conference, to conduct grant-funded research, to engage in not-for-credit activities arranged by a faculty member or staff member that are not solely part of their Program of Study, or if ISU is paying any portion of the travel expenses, they need to register at isutravel.iastate.edu. This is considered business travel. ISU’s Office of Risk Management will pay for ISU’s required travel insurance.
2. An assessment of the risk associated with the travel destination must be conducted. Destination risk levels can be found on the Office of Risk Management website at at isutravel.iastate.edu.
   • For Study Abroad travel, approval is required by the Study Abroad Risk Management Committee if the destination is considered high-risk (level 3 or greater).
   • For Business travel, an assessment of risk must be conducted by the Office of Risk Management for high-risk destinations (level 4 or greater). Approval by the dean’s office of the student’s academic college is required for graduate students traveling on business to high-risk destinations.

1.9.2 Professional travel funding from the English Department

The Department of English may contribute funding—on a competitive basis and subject to fund availability—for students in English Department graduate majors who are presenting at conferences (for example, serving on a panel, presenting a paper, or conducting a workshop). You may use travel funds for reimbursement of meeting registration fees at conferences, room and board, or other travel expenses (Summary of Allowable Travel Expenses in ISU Policy Library). The maximum amount of professional travel funding from the department per fiscal year (July 1 through June 30) will be determined for each degree level at the beginning of each academic year.

To facilitate administrative processing, students are strongly encouraged to expend all funds allotted to them on a single conference. In the rare case that a student does not use the total amount of awarded funding for a single conference, they may submit an application for a second conference, requesting only the amount of remaining funding available to them. To facilitate administrative processing, students are asked to submit a second application only in the situations in which all funding could not be expended on a single conference. More than two applications by a single student within a fiscal year will not be considered.

To apply for Departmental funding, you must complete the online Professional Travel Funding Application form and include with this copies of both your abstract and acceptance letter indicating you are presenting. All funding applications must be received no later than two (2) weeks prior to date of departure or will not be eligible for funding. You will be notified within two to three weeks after the receipt of your application if department funding is awarded.

All Professional Travel Funding Application forms and documentation are submitted through the online form for review by the DOGE and the department’s fiscal coordinator, (lgrove@iastate.edu; 259 Ross Hall). The fiscal coordinator can answer any question regarding the application. See below for reimbursement information.

1.9.3 Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) Professional Advancement Grants (PAG) Program

Funding for travel to professional meetings may be available through the Professional Advancement Grant (PAG) Program of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS). You are permitted one travel PAG per fiscal year (July 1 to June 30). You may use travel PAG funds for reimbursement of meeting registration fees at conferences, room and board, or travel expenses (Summary of Allowable Travel Expenses in ISU Policy Library).

The GPSS PAG Program website provides more details about PAG applications and support available through the Graduate and Professional Student Senate. You must list Luke Grove as the department contact (lgrove@iastate.edu; 259 Ross Hall). Once you have completed the GPSS Electronic PAG application, you will receive an email confirming receipt providing a link to view your completed application. Forward this email or send a PDF copy of your completed application to Luke Grove. See below for reimbursement information.

1.9.4 Travel expense reimbursement

All expenses (funded by both GPSS and the English Department) are reimbursed through a Workday Expense Report. When you return from your travel, you should create an Expense Report in Workday if you are an ISU employee (on a graduate assistantship or working hourly) to receive reimbursement. For more information and/or instructions on how to create Expense Reports, please visit  WorkCyte. You might benefit from taking the Learn@ISU training entitled Creating Expense Reports. This computer-based training is located in the Learn@ISU WorkCyte Finance System Training catalog (search Creating Expense Reports in the search box).

If you are not an ISU employee (no graduate assistantship or not working hourly somewhere on campus), you must email your request for reimbursement to finance_delivery@iastate.edu. Please use the Travel Reimbursement for Non-ISU Employees form. Attach the completed form and PDF copies of itemized receipts to the email.

Students will have two weeks (14 days) from the last day of travel to submit reimbursement requests and itemized receipts with proof of purchase on all receipts in order to be eligible for reimbursement. This deadline is particularly important if GPSS funding is included to ensure that you meet their deadline for funds to be expended within one month (30 days) from the last day of travel.

All travel expenses must be cash expenditures (Summary of Allowable Travel Expenses in ISU Policy Library). It is University policy that noncash expenses will not be reimbursed (e.g., airfare voucher, credit card points, mileage points, etc.). Travel expense reimbursement will not be processed until all required documentation has been received and analyzed for meeting funding requirements.

All funding reimbursement documentation must be submitted through Workday, either by you as an ISU employee or on your behalf if you are not an ISU employee. For additional questions regarding the Expense Report process, contact finance_delivery@iastate.edu.