Travel funding policy problems in Texas Tech

Travel funding policy problems in Texas Tech

National conferences and seminars provide a great context for students in the United States to promote their ideas and communicate with other scholars. These events also serve as a strong motivation for students to present their works and develop professional skills. Texas Tech University does a good job of informing and motivating students to take part in those events. However, Texas Tech policy of travel funds makes it difficult for students to join those conferences. This essay discusses the problems associated with travel fund policies in Texas Tech.

Travel funds in Texas Tech are reimbursable only after the students make their travel plans, and participate in the conference. This policy leaves students with a high amount of payment prior to the conference, meaning that the students have to pay for conference registration, ticket fees, hotel fees, and transportation before and while traveling. This factor discourages many students from participating in conferences. This problem gets highlighted especially for international students who do not have social security numbers and cannot have access to credit cards. For this group of students, it is absolutely difficult to manage to travel for conferences.

The second problem with the travel fund policies is that getting reimbursement even after traveling is not guaranteed. This means that even if students pay for the whole trip by themselves, there is a possibility that they won’t get any reimbursement. Travel funds are first come, first served, and funding resources are limited. This policy forces students to apply for travel funding months before their actual conference travel date. Students are already busy with coursework, and when they finally come up with presentable material for publishing in a conference, it is already too late and travel funding is not available anymore.

The final problem with the travel funding policy is its complicated requirements. Students are required to take three sessions of special “funding for travel” classes prior to getting a funding. These three sessions have to be taken before the travel date but the problem is that these sessions are not always offered. As a result, it becomes difficult for students to meet travel funding requirements. Secondly, students have to be registered for courses at the time of the travel. Most of the students do not take summer courses and actually, summer is the perfect time for students to attend conferences without the worry of their coursework responsibilities, but this policy makes summer conferences impossible to attend.

Texas Tech is a generous school with great resources and potential; however, for a great school, it has restrictive policies in conference travel funding. Conferences, especially if combined with traveling options, are great motivations for students to promote their projects. This essay suggests that reimbursement policies and also funding requirement applications need to be reconsidered. It would be perfect if every student could receive a travel funding package in the beginning of the semester, and would be responsible for returning it in case they did not present and attend in any national conferences or seminars. This suggested policy would help both students’ academic progress and Texas Tech’s reputation as a research school. (Sahar)