Travel

The Department of English recognizes the importance of faculty professional development and encourages its full-time members to participate in relevant professional meetings and conferences. The chair of the department will allocate funding for such professional development with priority given to the following levels of participation, ranked in order of decreasing priority: 

• Service to the department and/or the university (such as interviewing job candidates)
• Scholarly presentations at professional meetings—e.g., delivering a paper
• Scholarly participation at professional meetings—e.g., chairing a session or serving as a commentator
• Service to the profession—e.g., serving as an elected officer or as a member of a committee
• Other professional development (e.g., attending seminars to develop teaching or service)  

Faculty members should recognize that the department cannot be expected to fund all travel requests fully, and the usual procedure is to provide funds to cover airfare, hotel, and registration for at least one national conference per academic year (depending on the health of the department’s budget). In accordance with the priorities set by Academic Affairs, the Department of English recognizes the greater professional and financial needs of full-time, tenure-track junior faculty. However, the Department also recognizes the need for fairness and reasonableness in the allocation of travel funds, and faculty are therefore funded with the following priorities: (1) pre-tenured faculty; (2) tenured faculty; (3) lecturers. Faculty attending several conferences or professional meetings in one year, even with levels of participation with the highest priorities, should not expect funding for each conference or meeting. Faculty attending international conferences are encouraged to seek additional support from the Office of International Programs and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

At the beginning of each academic year, the Chair will send out a call for travel requests and will set travel funding priorities. Travel requests subsequent to that initial call will be met only if funds continue to be available.