Policy UL-TR02 Commonwealth Campus Libraries Travel

Policies and Guidelines

TRAVEL

Policy UL-TR02 COMMONWEALTH CAMPUS LIBRARIES TRAVEL

Contents:

Purpose
Administrative Travel
Professional Travel
Cross References

PURPOSE:

To outline administrative and professional travel policies pertaining to the former Campus College Libraries prior to the 2005 reorganization and the current Commonwealth Campus and University College Libraries’ organizational structure.

ADMINISTRATIVE TRAVEL:

Administrative travel for all faculty and staff in the University Libraries’ salary line will be covered as usual. That is, travel for faculty and staff assignments will be covered out of the central Campus Operating (CO) budget for committee/task group assignments made by the Dean or Assistant/Associate Deans, Library Faculty Organization committee work, promotion and tenure committee assignments, faculty meetings such as the CCL meetings and Collection Development retreats, staff workshops and training, and when faculty or staff are asked by the Libraries’ administration to represent the University Libraries on University, statewide, regional, or national groups.

PROFESSIONAL TRAVEL:

In order to account for and to permit the continuation of pre-2005 reorganization practices at Abington, Altoona, Behrend, Berks, Harrisburg, and Great Valley colleges in as equitable a manner as possible, the following policies will apply to dispersing funds for professional travel (i.e., travel to conferences, etc., and for research purposes):

Berks and Great Valley will continue to cover professional travel for their faculty and staff, as appropriate, from their library operating budgets according to the discretion of the Head of each library with the approval of the Associate Dean. Faculty and staff at these campuses will be excluded from allocations made from the University Libraries’ travel funds for professional travel.
Travel funding limits and guidelines for those libraries will be the responsibility of the Head librarians in planning and dispersing their respective operating budgets and may match but not exceed those established by the respective college for other faculty and staff at that campus. Those guidelines should be shared with the Director of Administrative Services in the University Libraries’ Business Office.
The Head Librarians at Berks and Great Valley will have the responsibility for planning this as a cost center in their annual operating budget as they would for other operating expenses such as supplies, wages, etc., and will be expected to dispense these funds according to the guidelines established for their campus. Shortfalls in this area, or in other cost center areas of the operating budgets are the responsibility of these individual libraries and will not be covered from the central CO funds.
Faculty and staff at Berks and Great Valley are eligible to apply for competitive travel grants at their campuses, and for those available through the University Libraries to all campuses. However, special funding available through the CO budget, such as gift money or endowment funds, that can be used to support professional travel for special needs at the discretion of the Associate Dean will be reserved primarily for staff and tenure-track faculty at Abington, Altoona, Behrend, Harrisburg, and the 14 campuses of the University College.
Professional travel for Abington, Altoona, Behrend, and Harrisburg, as well as for the 14 campuses of the University College, will be covered from central University Libraries’ funds allocated for this purpose. Individual allocations are made annually for the fiscal year on the basis of $2,000 for tenure-track faculty, $1,500 for tenured faculty, $750 for fixed-term faculty, and a central pool of funds available for staff travel on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the Associate Dean as projected through the annual budget process.
Berks and Great Valley will have the option of joining the regular Libraries’ travel funding program at the beginning of a future fiscal year if funds in appropriate amounts (equal to whatever the established allocations are at the time) are transferred from their operating budgets to the central Libraries’ travel funds pool for the faculty and staff they cover.

CROSS REFERENCES:

Other Policies in the manual should also be referenced, especially the following:

UL-TR01 – Types of Libraries Travel

Guideline UL-TRG01 – Requests for Travel
Guideline UL-TRG02 – Making Travel Arrangements
Guideline UL TRG03 – Cash Advances
Guideline UL-TRG04 – Reimbursable Costs
Guideline UL-TRG05 – Employee Travel Reimbursement Form
Guideline UL-TRG06 – Responsibilities of Libraries Travel Coordinator
Guideline UL-TRG07 – Libraries-Supported Staff Travel Funds