Graduate Student Council and Graduate Programs Office Funding Policy for Fall 2007

What is this all about?

The GSC has developed a policy for disbursing conference travel support for graduate students in the College of Computing (Masters and PhD students). The funding policy was developed with the goal of ensuring funds do not run out early in an academic year and to ensure students can apply for and be granted funding in a fair way.

GSC in conjunction with the Graduate Programs Office implemented this proposal in Spring 2007 to see how it worked in practice. The system was found to be fair and just, thus the policy continues this year to support travel for the CoC for graduate students. Each year funds will vary according to the budget for that fiscal year but the principles of disbursal will remain the same.

The details of the proposal are presented below.

**If you require funding in Fall 2007, please familiarise yourself with the application process below.**

Basic Policy Outline

Funds will be dispersed in two categories

Up to 50 small grants (up to $300 each) will be given per year. Applications for these funds will be handled by the Graduate Programs Office. Both Masters and PhD students in the CoC are eligible for this type of funding. Up to 4 large grants (up to $1000 each, two per semester) will be given out in Fall 2007 and Spring 2008. Applications for these funds will be handled by a GSC subcommittee. Only PhD students are eligible for this type of funding.

Both policies are subject to change at any time. If you have questions about the funding policy, please email suzzette@cc.gatech.edu for questions about $300 grants or Gsc-travel@cc.gatech.edu for questions about $1000 grants.

Application Rules for $300 grants

Basically, to ensure even distribution of funds throughout the year, funds have been divided into monthly pots. e.g. Jan, Feb, March etc will each have a pot of money (minus the month of June during which no travel will be supported). Money will be essentially, the (total travel funds pots for the year minus the money for the large grants)/(11).

Basic rules:

  1. Students will only receive funding once per year – if a student has already received funding s/he will be put on a waitlist and if at the end of a month, there is money remaining s/he will be granted the funds. (This is to ensure funds are not left over).
  2. Students who are not presenting papers are given preference (since if you are presenting your advisor will likely support you)
    If you are presenting a paper and your advisor will not support you, you can apply but must provide a letter from your advisor or email saying they will not support you.
  3. Students should indicate if they have applied to other sources of funding.
  4. Funds will be given on first come first serve basis if there is money available.
  5. Students will be allowed to apply from two months before the month their conference is in right up until the month their conference is in
    e.g. If you have a conference in March – you can apply in Jan and Feb or March.
  6. For each month if there is money left over it rolls over to the next month (This will ensure money balances out over the months where there are fewer conferences and months where there are more conferences). Rollovers happen on the 1st of a month e.g. on Dec 1, the money for December rolls into January etc.
  7. Funds are deducted from the month in which the conference is held.

To apply - these are the documents and signatures required to process application for CoC graduate student travel funds:

1. Complete in full, Travel Authority (TA).

a. Signed by students Advisor or Division Chair.

2. Complete in full, top portion of Graduate Student Travel Form.

a. Trip dates; conference name; location; etc.

3. The graduate programs travel form does not require Advisor or Division Chair signature unless they provide funds for the trip.

a. Signature of Division Chair or Advisor at # 1, 2, 3, or 4 at bottom of form

b. Graduate Programs staff will not accept a Graduate Student Travel Form without a Travel Authority attached.

4. Travel Authority and Graduate Programs Forms with signature(s) and pertinent information take to Suzzette Willingham, CCB 123A for final processing. (suzzette@cc.gatech.edu).

Application Rules for $1000 grants

For $1000 grants, GSC will handle the applications. All questions should be directed to Gsc-travel@cc.gatech.edu.

Basic Rules:

  1. Application periods and bins are set here so that people can be notified if they receive a large grant at least 1 month before their conference (so they can plan to get other funding if they don’t get it)
  2. A GSC sub committee will accept applications, and rank them at the end of an application period and send them to Leo Mark who will get the final word on who gets the $1000 awards.
  3. Only 1 $1000 grant can be awarded per area in an academic calendar year for fairness (Areas are HCI, LST, IS, etc)
  4. $1000 grants are only for PhD students.
  5. The application periods for Fall are:
    For conferences in Sept 1-Oct 31, Application is from Aug 1 -Sept 17, notification is Sept 21.

    For conferences in Nov1-Jan31, application is Sept 18-Oct 4, notification is Oct 5 .
  6. The tentative application periods for Spring are:
    For conferences in Feb 1-April 30, Application is from Nov-Feb 5, notification is Feb 11.

    For conferences in May1-May 30, application is Mar 1-April 1, notification is April 2 .

  7. If you are awarded the $1000 grant, you cannot apply for a CoC $300 grant.
  8. The GSC subcommittee for Fall 2007 is made up by Chris Parnin, Valerie Summit and Tracy Westeyn.

Applications are evaluated on these criteria:

How To Apply:

To apply, the following information should be submitted to Gsc-travel@cc.gatech.edu during the appropriate application period.

1. Which conference are you applying for?

2. What year are in you in the PhD program?

3. What is the estimate for the total cost of the conference?
Air:
Hotel:
Registration:
Food/other:
Total:

4. How much money do you expect to get from other sources? (e.g. advisor, scholarship, SGA funds, personal money)

5. What external assistance will you be seeking ? (e.g. Student Volunteer, student scholarships)

6. Are you presenting a paper that will appear in the proceedings? Are you the first author on this paper? Is it a short or full paper? [Note: Currently preference is given to students not presenting papers]

7. Have you been funded by CoC money for another conference this academic year?

8. What area in the College of Computing does this conference fall into? What tier conference is this? How important is this conference to your field/research area? How will it benefit you?

Supporting Materials
  1. Letter of Support from faculty saying he/she does not have the funds to send you (if you are presenting a paper)

Rules for Automatic Waitlist:

  1. Has someone else from your area already received full funds this calendar year? If Yes -> Waitlist
  2. Are you the main presenter a paper that will appear in the proceedings? If Yes -> Waitlist

College of Computing and GT requirements for Travel support

All travel must be approved by May 15.

The trip must be over May 30th and paperwork filed immediately after that to be reimbursed.

No travel can be supported during June.

Before any GT travel, if you are granted a full or partial funding award, you must complete a Travel Authority (TA). The Financial Officer in your Area or Administrative point person can assist you with the "TA". Once it is completed Leo Mark must sign it and you will be set to travel.

Once you return from your trip, you will have 15 days to complete a Travel Reimbursement form and submit to your Area Admin. person or Financial Officer with your "original" receipts, etc. to receive your reimbursement.