Travel policy

This is a reference page for Graduate student information.

THIS PAGE IS NOT OFFICIAL DEPARTMENTAL POLICY. IT MERELY REPRESENTS THE PEER-ADVICE PROVIDED BY FELLOW STUDENTS AND FACULTY.

What the handbook says

Students who must travel for their research can use the credit card in the Astrophysics office to purchase plane tickets. Students cannot get a travel advance.

During their first two years at Columbia, students have generally yet to decide on a dissertation topic and individual faculty sponsor. As a consequence, they have no obvious place to turn for financial support if they wish to attend a conference or workshop. Even students with a dissertation sponsor may not find funds readily available when they wish to attend a meeting or go on an observing trip. Recognizing these realities, the Department has established a policy (consistent with its very limited resources) to provide some support for all students for professional travel:

• During their graduate careers at Columbia, each student will be allocated at least $1500 from Department funds for travel related to their professional development. Most students will use this during their first two years, but this is not required. The funds may be expended only for acceptable charges filed within one month of a trip on a Columbia Travel Expense Report, including all necessary receipts. Charges in excess of the cumulative total of $1500 will not be reimbursed; the Departmental administrator will maintain a running total of each student’s expenses which should be consulted by the student before making travel plans. In addition, students should check with the Director of Graduate Studies that a proposed trip is appropriately related to their professional development.

• Students who have exhausted their Departmental travel allocation and who have no other source of funds to travel professionally may petition the Department Chair for support. However, given the contraints on Department funds, it is not likely that it will be possible to support such requests. Applications for such additional support which come with matching funds from other sources will be given priority. In the past, there has been some confusion as to what travel expenses are legitimate to claim on a travel expense report, independent of the source of funds. There are a significant number of government and University rules that must be adhered to in order for reimbursements to be processed. The Columbia rules are stated on the back of the form which should be consulted before a trip in order to avoid problems. In the interest of equity, we promulgate an additional set of guidelines. While it is not possible to impose these on individual grant Principal Investigators, they are consistent with University and Federal policies and should guide students in making travel plans and incurring expenses. These policies will be imposed on trips reimbursed with Departmental funds:
  • Tickets: These should be purchased far in advance in order to obtain the lowest possible fares. Only coach tickets are reimbursable. If support is being obtained from a government grant, air transportation must be on American flag carriers; travel reimbursed by the Department can be on any airline that minimizes the cost.
  • Ground transportation: In general, rental car costs will not be reimbursed unless a) it can be demonstrated that this will incur a lower total cost than the standard alternative, and b) explicit approval is obtained in advance.
  • Transportation to and from NYC airports by public transportation is strongly encouraged. Attempts should be made to share the cost among several students if a group is going to a meeting or on an observing trip. Transportation from the destination airport should be by public transportation if at all possible; again, sharing of cabs when they are required is strongly encouraged.
  • Meals: Reimbursement for meals will always be the smaller of actual out-of-pocket costs or $20.00 per day. Receipts for meals are now required under University policy; alcohol must be reported as a “segregated expense” and cannot be charged to government grants. An exception to the meal expense cap may be made, if prior approval is obtained, to cover the cost of a conference banquet (although the Department chef recommends against attending all conference banquets, as it is almost always possible to find much better fare elsewhere AND you don’t get stuck sitting with a bunch of boring astronomers).
  • Registration Fees: Approved conference registration fees are reimbursed for registration at the lowest available rate; this usually requires registering far in advance of the meeting.
  • Hotel: The lowest cost officially sanctioned housing should be used. Graduate students are expected to share double rooms if possible; most large meetings have mechanisms for facilitating sharing if you don’t already have a roommate. Staying with a friend or relative is encouraged, although it is not remibursed. However, it may provide justification for a rental car if this provides a net savings.
  • In general, no other travel costs are reimbursable (e.g., phone calls, in-room movies, etc.). Prior approval should be obtained if other costs are anticipated.

Additional information

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