Most conference travel are supported by research grants and not by funds from the department. If students are planning to present a paper at a conference they may apply for travel funds from the university. Students must fill out an application and submit it to the DGSA for processing and approvals. For more information please visit the Graduate School website. In certain exceptional cases, the department chair may help provide some travel funds. Since these funds are rather limited, they are given out carefully. If you wish to be considered for such funds, students and advisors need to write to the DGS requesting assistance. The DGS will then forward reasonable requests to the Department Chair. For uniformity the following set of criteria will be used in determining which students can be supported.
- The research advisor must have NO travel money and the student should have exhausted the funds from the Graduate School.
- The student's contribution must have been accepted for an oral presentation at the conference/workshop. In some exceptional cases, other forms of presentation may be considered.
- The student must submit a statement of importance to the DGS explaining the naturte of her/his participation at the conference/workshop. The letter should also address how attending the conference/workshop will help his/her career and research development.
- The advisor must write a support/endorsement letter to the DGS (an email message is sufficient) explaining the lack of funding and why he/she thinks it is essential for the student to attend the conference.
- The departmental support is limited to $500 each year for each research group.