The Baruch College Faculty Handbook

Last updated on 1/09/2009

Dear Colleagues,

As one of the cost-cutting strategies being adopted by Baruch College, a new policy governing faculty travel goes into effect, from now on.  We recognize that travel to professional meetings is a critical element of faculty scholarship and professional development.  However, the College’s current financial situation, particularly regarding funds made available through The Baruch College Fund, requires that we impose limits on professional travel.  Specifically, faculty travel will be supported only in those cases in which faculty members are presenting scholarly papers at recognized and highly-regarded professional meetings.  Support will be provided to only one Baruch author per presentation, and faculty members are asked to limit travel to those meetings that are vital to faculty scholarship. Support for travel to more than one meeting per year will be very rare. Considering the high cost of international travel, and the goal of providing support for the largest number of faculty with the limited funds available, it is highly unlikely that international travel, even to present a paper, can be supported.  Deans are asked to review and approve all requests for faculty professional travel.  Even if travel is approved and supported, we cannot guarantee that full travel support will be available.

Faculty travel for purposes other than presenting scholarly work cannot, at this time, be supported with Baruch funds; therefore travel to attend conferences, workshops or seminars at which papers are not being presented cannot, at this time, be supported.

Any exceptions to the above conditions must be justified based on the needs of the College, rather than the contribution of the proposed travel to the faculty member’s scholarship.  Any exception must be approved by the Provost.

We regret the need to impose this more restrictive policy, but the current situation gives us no options.  As soon as we find ourselves in a more favorable financial position, we will return to our previous, more liberal approach to funding travel for scholarly and professional development.

Sincerely,

Jim McCarthy

Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs