Faculty Senate Travel Policies and Procedures

Instructions for Requesting Faculty Senate Travel Funding

  1. Note the Faculty Senate travel funding request deadlines.
  2. Read the Faculty Senate Statement of Purpose and Funding Guidelines.
  3. Seek departmental funding first. Note that Faculty Senate does not reimburse departmental funds expended for your travel; Faculty Senate only reimburses faculty members for out-of-pocket expenses they have incurred for their travel.
  4. Complete and Submit the Faculty Senate Travel Expense Estimate of Costs Form along with any backup documentation by the published deadline.

All qualified travel applicants will be placed on the agenda for the next Salary, Benefits and Budget Committee meeting for approval.

Upon Salary, Benefits and Budget Committee approval, the travel applicant will be placed on the Faculty Senate consent agenda for approval. Upon Senate consent agenda approval, the Faculty Senate office will send notification of senate travel fund approval to the Budget and Planning Office, the approved traveler, and the approved traveler's departmental administrative assistant. The Faculty Senate Office will work with the department administrative assistant to apply the approved funding to the traveler's Spend Authorization and Expense Report. 

Disbursement of Travel Funds

Disbursements will be paid in proportion to the number (and dollar amount requested) of approved requests.

For example: if $2,000 is earmarked to the Faculty Senate for a given semester, and 10 requests are received (all for more than $750), then $200 would be allotted to each approved request. Note, however, that in some semesters there may not be an equal dollar amount allotted to each travel request.

Every attempt to meet legitimate requests will be made, up to $750, with a maximum reimbursement of $750 per applicant per year.

Upon return, the approved travel or department administrative assistant is required to submit an expense report via Workday. The costs are to be itemized to include funds from Faculty Senate and a note in the memo section of the expense report is needed. Please state the amount of funding that was approved by Faculty Senate in the memo section.​

Travel Application Deadlines

Applications must meet the Faculty Senate travel application deadlines for Fall and Spring. Deadlines are announced at the end of the Spring Semester for the following academic year. There are two opportunities to apply for travel funds for each travel period. See the table below.

Semester Travel Taken Between Deadline Date at 5 p.m.
Fall 2024  July 1–Dec. 31 Sept. 13, 2024
Spring 2025 Jan. 1–June 30 Feb. 14, 2025

Statement of Purpose and Funding Guidelines

TMCC's Faculty Senate, as members of TMCC, an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution, recognizes the right of all eligible tenured, tenure-track, zero-rank, and full-time academic and administrative faculty to apply for and receive professional development funds, irrespective of campus area, religion, gender, creed, or sexual orientation.

Applications are evaluated solely on merit as determined by established criteria.

Faculty Senate recognizes the importance of continuing professional development of TMCC  faculty. Faculty are hired with a wealth of knowledge that makes us all effective in our individual, professional capacities. However, knowledge base, pedagogy and other field-specific skills are changing rapidly for all of us. Faculty Senate demonstrates its commitment to this ongoing development by reviewing and funding professional development experiences that incur travel expenses. This reimbursement includes not only direct travel expenses incurred by the faculty but also any workshop or conference fees (currently, combined travel and fees are a maximum reimbursement of $750 per academic year per person).

Use of Faculty Senate travel funds for professional advancement must meet Board of Regents Code (BOR Procedures and Guidelines Manual, Chapter 5, Section 11).

While Faculty Senate recognizes the need of individual faculty to remain up-to-date in their field to be effective and sustained in their respective fields, we also recognize the importance of travel activities that focus on institutionally based goals. These travel activities may or may not contribute to the professional development of individual faculty but are essential to the ongoing business of the college. Some common examples of non-funded Faculty Senate funded travel include articulation conferences, accreditation meetings, and ongoing program development activities. We recognize that there are alternative budgeting allocations in various areas of the college that can allow for institutional goals to be met.

Given the limited budget allocations to the Faculty Senate and the availability of alternative budgeting means for institutional development travel, Faculty Senate travel requests must focus on the ongoing professional development of the tenured, tenure-track, zero-rank, and full-time administrative faculty.

Institutional development travel requests should go to your Dean, Vice President, or other administrative personnel. Consequently, Faculty Senate cannot accept primarily institutionally-based travel activities for Faculty Senate travel funds.

This being said, the goals of the institution are neither separate nor distinct from faculty professional development, but can and often do overlap in many ways. Therefore, one of the more important and most challenging decisions of the recommending committee is to determine whether travel is the responsibility of the Institution or that of the Faculty Senate.

Faculty Senate Travel (Funded)

Primarily meets the ongoing development needs of faculty, and is not the ongoing responsibility of the institution, school or department.

  • Attendance of conference in one's field or related field
  • Online workshop or conference in one’s field or related field
  • Attendance of workshop in one's field or related field
  • Presenters/officers with denied travel requests
  • Other "primarily faculty development travel"

Institutional-Based Travel (Not Funded)

Primarily meets the ongoing institutional needs of TMCC, and may or may not help the faculty member develop within their profession.

  • Articulation-related travel
  • Accreditation-related travel
  • Ongoing training required for current programs-related travel
  • Other institutional-based travel