English Department People

Department Administration

Policies and Procedures

The ABCs of English Department Administration

A User's Guide to Departmental Policies and Processes

Download 'The ABCs of English Department Administration' in word document form. [DOC]

Created September 18, 2006

Note significant procedural changes discussed under "Food," "Mailing Services," "Telephone," and "Travel."
(Italicized headings indicate that the following entry is essentially an explanation of a word or phrase used in the document.)

Academic Year

Four consecutive quarters running from one summer quarter through the following spring quarter.

Administrative Organization

Central Administration
Chair's Office

Business Office Departmental Support Program Administration
Graduate Studies Undergraduate Studies ASL Program Creative Writing Digital Media Project Rhetoric, Composition and Literacy Studies
Vice-Chair's Office First-Year Writing Program Intermediate Writing Writing Workshop

Alcohol

Contact: Cheryl Frasch (frasch.1@osu.edu)
Time Required: 3 weeks before the date of the event

The Department must request and receive permission to bring alcoholic beverages to campus and serve them at departmental events. Permission must be obtained for each event; without it, there can be no alcoholic beverages at the event.

Permission is granted by the Vice-President for Business and Finance after review by the Office of Legal Affairs. The Office of Legal Affairs requires 2 weeks to process a request.

Information Needed:

• Date of event
• Time of event
• Time period (generally, the period from the time set-up for the event begins, through the event, to the time clean-up is finished and the alcoholic beverages are removed from campus)
• Location of event
• Group(s) for whom event is planned
• Number of guests
• Statement that guests will not be charged
• Responsible Party (the person who accepts responsibility for the Department's compliance with all relevant laws)
• How access to the alcoholic beverages will be controlled (generally, how the event sponsors and Responsible Party will ensure that no person under the legal age will be served or allowed to obtain alcoholic beverages)

E-mail all this information to Cheryl at least three weeks before the event is to take place. The subject line of the message should read: ALCOHOL. When permission has been granted, Cheryl will place a copy of the approval letter in the Responsible Party's mailbox.

Note: This approval is separate from and in addition to the approvals required for purchasing food and alcoholic beverages with university funds. See Food for those requirements.

Budget Restructuring

The University's present budgeting model, which ties funding levels to enrollments.

Calendar of Departmental Events

The most up-to-date calendar can be found at http://english.osu.edu/.

Computers

Computer Purchases
Contact: Cheryl Frasch (frasch.1@osu.edu)

The College and the Department provide each regular faculty and staff member with one new computer on a four-year replacement rotation. Faculty with special research funds may choose to use some of those funds to purchase upgrades or one additional computer. All computer purchases involving university funds must be cleared through HIS; all computers purchased with university funds become and remain the property of the University.

Computer Problems
1st Contact: Kevin Connor, DMP, 2-3754
2nd Contact: HIS, http://his.osu.edu/generalquestion.cfm

Software and Computer Peripherals
Requests for special software or equipment must be routed through the Department's Technology Committee.
Contact: Les Tannenbaum (tannenbaum.1@osu.edu)

Copying and Printing

Contact: Kitty O'Brien (obrien.13@osu.edu)

Copiers/printers/fax machines maintained by the Department

Denney 572
Functions: copying and printing
Priority Use: confidential materials, such as exams and letters of recommendation
Who Can Access: faculty
How to Access: room: key to 421 and common areas machine, machine: account code and password (both made up of the last five digits of the social security number)

Denney 446
Functions: copying and printing
Priority Use: none
Who Can Access: all departmental personnel
How to Access: room: keypad code 15683, machine: account code and password (both made up of the last five digits of the social security number)

Denney 414 (Workroom)
Functions: copying
Priority Use: large jobs
Who Can Access: all departmental personnel during regular business hours; faculty and staff after hours
How to Access: room: open during regular busniess hours; after hours, key to 421 and common areas, machine: account code (last five digits of the social security number)

Denney 421 (large machine)
Functions: copying and faxing
Priority Use: faxing, small copying jobs
Who Can Access: all departmental personnel during regular business hours; faculty and staff after hours
How to Access: room: open during regular business hours; after hours, key to 421 and common areas, machine: account code (last five digits of the social security number)

Denney 421 (small machine)
Functions: printing
Priority Use: staff use only
Who Can Access: staff use only
How to Access: staff use only

In addition, HIS maintains a computing/printing facility for graduate students in Denney 525. Access is available only to graduate students and only through HIS.

Copying/Printing Allocations
Regular faculty and staff are allotted 4,000 copies/prints per academic year for teaching, research, and/or special projects.

Specials faculty and graduate students are allotted 600 copies/prints for each course taught, and graduate students taking courses or working on theses or dissertations are allotted another 400 copies/prints per quarter to support their own work.

The fine for each copy/print over allocation is $.15. We don't want to have to levy and collect fines, but, if doing so is the only way to contain copying/printing and paper costs, we will.

Copying for Faculty
In general, each individual is responsible for copying and printing his/her own materials, but the Department is able to provide some copying support for faculty. To request this support, faculty should visit Kitty O'Brien's workstation, obtain and complete a request form, and leave it with the materials to be copied in the box on her counter

Copying Restrictions
The Department supports reproduction of materials necessary to the conduct of departmental business in the areas of instruction, research, and administration.

The Department does not allow copying or printing materials relating to personal or extra-departmental (other OSU units, other universities) business.

All copying done on departmental machines must comply with all copyright laws. The individual making the copies or having them made is responsible for compliance with these laws. Please do not ask a staff member to break the law. The University Libraries now has staff in their Rights Management Help Center whose expertise is copyright laws; Trisha Davis from that Center can be reached at davis.115.osu@gmail.com. She advises that "anyone may copy an insubstantial part of a work, e.g. less than 10% and not including the ‘heart' of the work, for personal use only."

Problems with Machines
Contact: Kitty O'Brien (obrien.13@osu.edu)

Desk Copies

Contact: Kitty O'Brien (obrien.13@osu.edu)

Regular faculty members may ask Kitty to order desk copies for courses they are scheduled to teach. The information Kitty needs includes

• Name of the publisher
• Author of the book
• Title and edition of the book
• ISBN
• Course number
• Course title
• Quarter course will be offered
• Whether the book is required or recommended or optional

Employment Eligibility

Contact: Cheryl Frasch (frasch.1@osu.edu) or Lynne Berry (berry.5@osu.edu)
Time Line: Prior to beginning work

All individuals who work for the department must establish eligibility for employment in the US before doing any work with the expectation of being paid. No supervisor should allow someone to work before receiving notification that that person has completed this process because the department cannot pay for any work done before the date employment eligibility is established. In the case of work-study employees, Lynne will distribute time sheets to the supervisor only after the student has met this and all other requirements.

Enrollment Management

General Considerations
Student Registration and Fee Payment
Students who have not registered and/or paid all their fees by the University's enrollment census date, the 14th day of the quarter, generate no revenue for the Department. The census counts only paid enrollments, and that count is used to calculate the instructional revenue the Department receives. Each unpaid student—and there are between 50 and 65 each quarter—who is allowed to remain in a class is receiving faculty instruction and university services without paying for them, and such situations ultimately undercut the Department's ability to pay faculty, GTA, and lecturer salaries, support travel to conferences, and so on.

To reduce the number of these situations, all of us as instructors should update and check rosters often at the beginning of a quarter to confirm that all the students we are teaching have successfully completed registration and fee payment processes for the quarter. Any student falling into one of the following "problem" categories should be notified that s/he must resolve the problem before the 14th day of the quarter in order to remain in the class:

Situation: student attending class but not appearing on the roster
Problem: not properly enrolled
Initial Contact/Remedy: student’s advisor and/or the Registrar’s Office

Situation: student attending class but listed as unpaid on the roster
Problem: outstanding balance (N.B.: Sometimes financial aid has been awarded but not yet applied to a student account.)
Initial Contact/Remedy: Office of Fees and Deposits

Situation: student appearing on a full roster but never attending class
Problem: Another student waiting to get into the full class
Initial Contact/Remedy: permission of instructor to enroll over the class limit (The short-term benefits of one fewer student to grade are more than negated by the long-term costs of our failure to meet our enrollment goals for our new scheduling system and our fiscal responsibilities as a Department.)

Situation: student intending to take independent study hours or a graduate workshop
Problem: student not yet enrolled
Initial Contact/Remedy: student's advisor and/or The Graduate School and/or the Registrar's Office

Graduate Student Enrollment in Courses
The standard load for graduate students entering the MA and PhD programs is two courses/quarter for graduate associates and three courses/quarter for fellows.

Independent studies should, as always, be reserved for special circumstances, for exceptional and self-motivated students, and for subject matter not addressed by regularly scheduled courses. In normal circumstances, first-year students should only take reading hours in addition to, not in place of, classes.

When a graduate student holds an appointment with stipend and fee waiver in English but takes courses outside the Department, credit—and revenue—for that student’s enrollment is awarded to the department teaching the course, not to English. For that reason, while we support interdisciplinarity and breadth in education, we cannot afford to pay a student’s fees for courses that do not contribute to the progress of degree programs in English.

Teaching and Retaining Students
Because of the financial significance placed on 14th-day enrollments, it is important for instructors to use the first two weeks of the quarter to sell the importance and excitement of the topic and the class and to convince students that they don’t want to be anywhere else at that time. To put it another way, that two-week period should not be used to "weed out" the "average" and the half-interested; doing so diminishes enrollments and therefore revenues, creating a situation in the end that is counterproductive.

It is also important that 398 instructors keep in mind that they are introducing new majors to English studies. For every poorly taught 398, we stand to lose up to 18 majors. English 398 should be structured to help these students become engaged in the field and begin their major programs with a good experience. They are, after all, the primary audience for our 500-level courses, and enrollment levels in those courses depend upon their interest.

Undergraduate Advising
Enrollment management is intrinsically linked to the professional quality of the relationships faculty members and the Director and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies develop with their advisees. Students will flourish and populate our courses in an environment in which: advisors are available for consultation several hours a week; advisors are up-to-date and well-versed in the requirements and subtleties of the major and minor programs, as well as in the department’s curriculum and upcoming course offerings; advisors are responsive to student inquiries and willing to help students overcome bureaucratic roadblocks that impede or threaten to impede their progress. Well-advised majors and minors will take more courses in English, move more efficiently and intelligently through their programs, finish their degrees in a timely fashion, and be good ambassadors for the Department and the University.

Course Promotion
All instructors should be willing and eager to promote their courses, especially those that are new or that deal with special topics, and, in some cases, vigorous promotion is all that stands between running a course and cancelling it. Course promotion can take many forms: posters, listservs, e-mails to former students, or visits to current classes studying related topics. Listservs and posters usually do not work by themselves; employing different forms of promotion during critical registration periods has proven to be the most effective way to boost enrollment in a course. For undergraduate courses, events and activities sponsored by the Undergraduate Program and EUGO, such as their Schedulathons, offer additional opportunities for publicizing courses.

Course Scheduling
Distribution of Courses in Faculty Loads
Our faculty load in the College of Humanities is 5 courses per academic year. In English, a faculty member who meets certain service requirements can use service in place of teaching a 5th course. Currently, we are distributing a 4-course load as follows: 1 lower-level 45-seat class; 1 upper-level 40-seat class; 1 small seminar, either graduate or honors; and 1 writing class. When a faculty member’s load is reduced to 3 courses one year, the course dropped from his/her schedule will be the small seminar.

During 2006-2007, we will undertake a review of the process by which English Department faculty are assigned to teach courses for other departments or centers and of the way those courses are counted in the faculty member’s load. We might need to keep at a minimum opportunities to teach outside the Department, unless we can count those enrollments in our total.

Distribution of Courses by Teaching Areas
To ensure that our courses do not compete against each other for student enrollment, it is the responsibility of the Course Scheduler to balance the course offerings each quarter by historical period, genre, and all other relevant criteria. Faculty and teaching area conveners must be cooperative with the Course Scheduler and flexible throughout the year as changes in the schedule (even those in another area) might well require revisions to their course assignments for upcoming quarters.

Responding to Demand
When demand for courses in a particular subject area is higher than usual and when that demand continues over several quarters, the Department will move to take advantage of that increased interest in order to add to its enrollments. At such a time, the Graduate or Undergraduate Studies Committee, as appropriate, will look into developing a new course in the area, and the Course Scheduler will work to increase the number of sections or courses offered in that area the following year.

In addition, the Scheduler will continue to be a vigorous defender of classes threatened with cancellation by low enrollments, especially if they fill a vital need in the curriculum. Other courses with low enrollments, however, such as special topics courses that have previously been offered and courses that have extremely limited interest, will be cancelled so that the faculty member can be given a new assignment in time to prepare, order books, etc., and the displaced GTA, if there is one, can do the same with his/her new class. Enrollments can be predicted when they are closely watched, and the Scheduler's experience with enrollment patterns and instincts must be trusted when the difficult decisions are to be made.

We have a rare and historical opportunity at this juncture. We are as close to having a fully-staffed faculty in 06-07 as we have been in a decade or more, and we begin with this healthy and exciting faculty a new chapter in the history of the College as we embark on our new variable workload system. Failure to meet our enrollment goals will mean risking budget cuts and a return to a 5 (or more) variable course load as the standard for all faculty. Success will ensure our financial security, our curricular independence, and our quality of life as a Department. Achieving our goals will require the dedication of all. We know that exciting, essential, engaging work is going on in the English Department. Let’s make sure that others know this too.

Fiscal Year

July 1, xxxx through the following June 30, xxxx.

Food
Contact: Cheryl Frasch (frasch.1@osu.edu)

Meals with Visiting Scholars All expenditures from university funds must have a clear business purpose, and only "meals with visiting scholars," among food purchases, easily meets that requirement. This category includes meals for faculty candidates who come to campus to give job talks. It is the presence of someone from outside the University that gives these meals their business status, but it does not eliminate purchasing restrictions on them. Only employees who can contribute to the business discussion at the dinner with the outside guest may have their meals covered, and all individuals present must adhere to the following departmental spending limits for food and alcohol.

Upper Spending Limits per Individual: Dinner: $40.00
Alcohol: $20.00
Tip: Not over 20%

If such a meal is to be charged to a university procurement card, the Dean must pre-approve the purchase of alcohol with the meal. The College has asked for two weeks to process pre-approval requests.

Proper documentation of spending for meals includes at least

• the credit card receipt showing the total amount charged
• an itemized receipt listing everything ordered
• names of attendees written on the back of one of the receipts

Snacks, Refreshments, and Meals among Ourselves
Buying snacks, refreshments, or more substantial food for groups of university employees—faculty, staff, graduate students—on more than an occasional basis is considered an inappropriate use of university funds. “Occasional” in this context is defined as six or fewer events per year, and this number essentially covers “community” events planned for the department as a whole, such as the spring picnic, holiday party, and staff appreciation luncheon. The bottom line is that we cannot have food or snacks purchased with university funds when no outside person is involved in an event or gathering. For example, a faculty member may not go to the Faculty Club for lunch, afternoon tea, or dinner with another faculty member or a graduate student or students and charge the costs to the Department’s account. Any individual engaging in such unauthorized spending will personally be required to reimburse the amount charged to the Department; otherwise the meal or event would be counted as one of the six the Department is allowed annually.

The regulations provide a window for exceptions in very specific circumstances, if the Dean approves the exception prior to the event. To qualify, employees must be asked to give up personal time (e.g., their lunch break) in order to continue working, and the food must be brought in to the workplace. Starting or ending a session at meal time or leaving the workplace for the meal does not qualify for an exception. Requests to the Dean for exception approval must be submitted to Cheryl at least two weeks prior to the event and must include a description of the business purpose of the event and a business-related rationale for including food. Cheryl will notify you when the Department receives a response, but, without the Dean’s approval, the Department will not pay for food for any employees-only event.

Fund Types

Type: Agency
Source(s) of Funding: outside organization and its members
Acceptable Uses: within parameters for university funds, as specified by the organization

Type: Discretionary
Source(s) of Funding: donors, income from textbooks
Acceptable Uses: within parameters for university funds, operating expenses, food, alcohol, flowers, gits

Type: General
Source(s) of Funding: State of Ohio
Acceptable Uses: salaries, operating expenses

Type: Gift (sometimes Endowed)
Source(s) of Funding: donors
Acceptable Uses: stipulated by donor

Type: Grants—Internal
Source(s) of Funding: Academic Affiars, Office of Research, College of Humanities, other OSU units
Acceptable Uses: as approved by grantor

Type: Grants—External
Source(s) of Funding: outside agencies, such as the Ohio Arts Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities
Acceptable Uses: as approved by grantor and OSURF

“University Funds” refers to any monies—whatever their type or source—held in the University’s financial system for use by University personnel or programs.

All money awarded to or collected by a University employee in connection with his/her official duties must be held in and paid out from this financial system; no employee may place University funds in an outside bank account.

Hiring
Hiring is coordinated through the Chair’s Office, and all letters of offer must come from the Chair.

HIS

Humanities Information Systems, the group that manages our college’s network system. Can be reached at http://his.osu.edu/generalquestion.cfm.

Letterhead Stationery and Envelopes

English Department letterhead stationery and envelopes are to be used only by authorized individuals for official departmental business. Do not use them for casual correspondence with other faculty and staff.

Meeting Rooms

Contact: Raeanne Woodman

Denney 416 holds 6 to 8 persons.
Denney 447 holds 12 to 14 persons.
Denney 311 holds 60 to 70 persons.

Meeting rooms are to be scheduled through Raeanne.

The following restrictions apply:

• None of these meeting rooms may be used for class meetings.
• Students may book and use meeting rooms after business hours only if a faculty member from English is present throughout the meeting or event.
• Non-departmental groups may book and use these rooms only with the special permission of the Chair.

Mailing Services

The Department pays standard postage for any piece of mail required in conducting departmental business. The Department does not pay postage for personal or non-departmental mail.

Standard departmental mail will continue to be identified by the following sequence of numbers: 05370-011000-61801. Labels printed with these numbers are located with other mail supplies in the main office. A program or project that has been assigned a special code (called a user definition) should add that code to the end of this sequence.

Because of the additional costs it entails, express mail (DHL) now has to be handled as a purchase, and all purchases require approval of the Chair and documentation of business purpose. In order to satisfy these requirements, items qualifying for expedited handling, such as some book manuscripts and some letters of recommendation, will have to be processed in the Department before they are submitted to DHL. Envelopes and packages can no longer be taken directly to any DHL box, including the one outside Denney.

The process we have developed is similar to the one we presently use for travel pre-approval. Simply e-mail the following information to Lynne Berry (berry.5@osu.edu):


Lynne will use this information and billing numbers (similar to the sequence above) to prepare the authorization form that the University provides and that must be attached to the envelope or package when it is submitted to DHL or, if necessary, another carrier. DHL provides a list of all express mailings charged to the Department, and that list will be reconciled to copies of the forms Lynne prepares so that postage for any mailing that is not properly documented can be charged back to the sender.

On-Duty Quarters

The three quarters in an academic year a member of the regular faculty is obligated to be available for teaching, advising, and/or service assignments.

Payroll

Monthly
Monthly paydays fall on the last working day of each month.

The deadline for reporting payroll additions or changes is the 5th of the month in which the addition or change is to be effective.

Biweekly
Biweekly paydays fall every other Friday or the last working day prior to a holiday Friday.

The deadline for reporting time worked for any pay period is the Monday following the end of the pay period. Supervisors are responsible for correct reporting of the time their student employees have worked and for signing and submitting the time sheet by the deadline.

Property Maintenance

Contact: Raeanne Woodman (woodman.11@osu.edu) or Kitty O’Brien (Obrien.13@osu.edu)

Too hot, too cold, broken this, broken that—any non-aesthetic feature of Denney Hall or its contents that shows some potential for correction.

Property Rights

Anything purchased with university funds, including special research funds and awards, becomes and remains property of the University.

Purchasing

The University’s move to stricter controls on purchasing is a continuing process, and more restrictions relating to segregation of duties and college oversight of departmental processes were put in place this summer. In order to comply with these guidelines, responsibilities related to purchasing have been redistributed within the department. Last year Lynne served as the contact person for all purchases, and Cheryl and Lynne handled different phases of the processing. Now, because of requirements added to later phases of the process--the Chair must sign off on all purchases and most have to be approved by the College or Purchasing as well, we have tried to streamline the initial phases of the departmental processes. In particular, Cheryl is now the contact person for all procurement and for faculty travel, and Lynne will handle grad student travel and play a larger role in monthly payroll processing.

In case you happen to hear it--the University’s formal word for this function is procurement.

The mechanism for buying something—anything--with University funds is determined by a number of factors:

• the category—goods, services, honoraria—into which the purchase falls
• the fund type that can/will be used for payment
• the tax status of the vendor
• the business purpose behind the purchase
• the inclusion of food and/or alcohol in the expense
• the cost

Because the requirements, forms, and processes vary with each distinct combination of these factors and neither order nor payment processing can begin until all funding and purchasing documents and information are in place, it is important to contact Cheryl well before a purchase is needed in order to determine what will be required. In general, responsibilities for a purchase are divided as follows:

Staff Responsibilities

1. Obtaining university approval(s) for purchases
2. Processing payment requests
3. Resolving payment problems

Purchaser Responsibilities

1. Securing funding
2. Deciding on a supplier/vendor
3. Serving as the primary contact for the supplier/vendor
4. Providing funding, vendor, and purchase information to Cheryl
5. Certifying that goods or services have been delivered

Given these variables, we are including only a general list of purchasing guidelines here. These principles and cautions are intended to help define the parameters within which we may make purchases in the name of the University. Every purchase will also have more specific requirements, and those requirements are discussed in the sections on specific types of purchases.

Anyone authorized to spend University funds has an obligation to ensure

• that every purchase has a clear business purpose related to the University’s teaching and research mission
• that each purchase represents the best value possible for the money
• that a supplier/vendor honors the University’s tax exempt status, when applicable
• that, as purchaser, s/he accrues no personal benefit from the purchase

Anyone arranging for and/or securing goods or services with the expectation that the University will pay should be aware that

• only an agent from the Purchasing Office can sign a contractual agreement for the University, which is not legally bound by a contract signed by non-authorized personnel nor obligated to pay or reimburse costs associated with unauthorized purchases
• payment or reimbursement for food—meals, snacks, beverages—is, in general, allowable only when someone from outside the University is present and only for the individuals present who could contribute to the business discussion
• an employee can never be reimbursed for a payment made to a third-party individual for goods or services rendered

Receipts

For proper documentation of an expense, receipts must include the following information:

• the name and business address of the supplier/vendor
• the date the purchase was made
• description(s) of the item(s) or services purchased
• the cost of each item or service
• the name of the payor
• the date payment was made
• the method and amount of payment

Regular Faculty

Persons whose appointments match the following descriptions are members of the regular faculty.

• Title: Full Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, or Instructor
• Position: tenured or tenure-eligible
• Contract Length: renewed annually, subject to outcome of fourth- and sixth-year reviews
• FTE: usually full-time
• Benefits: eligible by position--if qualified individually--for all benefits offered by the University

Required Reporting

The following table lists reports individual employees are required to file to affirm their compliance with federal, state, and university regulations. A complete explanation of each requirement can be found at the Web link cited.

Report: Conflict of Interest
Primary Concern: Financial conflict between individual’s university responsibilities and outside business interests
Who Must File: All regular faculty and other faculty and staff engaged in related activities
Filing Schedule: Annually with updates as necessary

Report: Declaration of Material Assistance
Primary Concern: Not hiring individuals who provide material assistance to terrorists
Who Must File: All employees
Filing Schedule: Prior to hire

Report: Ohio Ethics Code
Primary Concern: Compliance with code
Who Must File: All employees
Filing Schedule: Prior to hire

Report: External Consulting
Primary Concern: Work for outside entities that could take away from performance of university responsibilities
Who Must File: All full-time employees
Filing Schedule: Prior to engaging in work

Report: Supplemental Compensation
Primary Concern: Work for university units other than the home department that could take away from primary responsibilities
Who Must File: All full-time employees
Filing Schedule: Prior to engaging in work

Specials Faculty

Persons whose appointments match the following descriptions are members of the specials faculty.

• Title: Auxiliary Faculty, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Visiting Faculty
• Position: not tenure-eligible
• Contract Length: 1 quarter or 3 quarters in the same academic year
• FTE: usually part-time, but can be full-time
• Benefits: eligibility generally limited

Supplies

The Department maintains a small inventory of basic supplies intended to support regular university business; these supplies are available through Kitty. An administrative area with funds in a departmental account may place an order, through Kitty, for special supplies or for a large quantity of basic supplies, and the cost of the order will be charged to the departmental account for that area.

Telephone Services

University policy states that employees must reimburse their departments for long-distance personal calls made on a University office telephone. UNITS, the entity within the University that provides our telephone equipment and services, gives us a monthly statement that includes, in part, lists of every toll call made from every phone in the Department, with the city and number called, the date and time the call originated, and the duration and cost of the call. We have regularly reviewed these lists for calls that stand out, for example, because they originate late at night or because they last much longer than ordinary business calls. This means of internal control does not, however, put us firmly in compliance with University policy, and we therefore now require members of the Department to keep a log of all long-distance personal calls made on a University office telephone and to turn that log in to Cheryl on the last working day of any month in which such calls were made. The log should include the city and number called as well as the date and time the call was placed. We will then, in addition to continuing our regular reviews, check the cost of the calls listed in the log and ask for reimbursement of those costs.

There are also other options for anyone needing to make personal long-distance calls but not wanting to keep a log of those calls: making the calls on a personal cell phone, or arranging with UNITS for a personal code that can be used with a university telephone and then billed to the individual rather than to the department.

Travel

Contact for Faculty Travel: Cheryl Frasch (frasch.1@osu.edu)
Contact for Grad Student Travel: Lynne Berry (berry.5@osu.edu)

Eligible Travel
The Department provides support for faculty and graduate students traveling to scholarly conferences and meetings for the purpose of presenting papers on their research. These presentations must be part of the formal program of the meeting and require documentation as such. This support does not cover travel for the sole purpose of chairing a session at a conference and covers participation in panel discussions only when approved by the Chair.

Allocation
This year the travel allocation for regular faculty is $1,000 and for specials faculty and graduate students, $300. Expenses that may be charged against this allocation include travel between cities, local travel (airport to hotel, for example), conference registration up to $100, and lodging up to $100/night plus tax. Food is not covered. You should check with Cheryl or Lynne to determine if other expenses you might want to claim are covered.

Other Funding
Individuals may also have travel funding from other sources within or outside the University. This funding is usually accessed through the Department. Because the expenses covered by such grants or awards are determined by the grantor, a copy of the budget approved by the granting unit or agency must be submitted to Cheryl or Lynne before processing begins.

Pre-Approval
Whatever the source of the funding, any and all travel that will or might be processed through OSU must have pre-approval from the University’s Travel Office. This approval must be obtained before any arrangements for the travel are made. It is far, far better to request approval and then not travel than to travel and then request pre-approval.

To Obtain Pre-Approval
Contact Cheryl or Lynne, as indicated above, by e-mail.

Use TRAVEL as the subject of the message.

Include the following information:

• Destination
• Date of reparture
• Date of return
• Purpose of trip
• Source of funding

Once approval has been granted, you will receive an e-mail saying that you may proceed with arrangements for your trip.

Pre-Payment of Airfare
Regular faculty may have airfare pre-paid if they book flights through one of the two travel agencies in contract with the University:


Please note that there is an additional $30.00 cost to book a flight through these agencies.

Procedure: Contact the agency and make arrangements for a seat on the flight that best suits your schedule. Ask the agency to hold the reservation and forward the reservation itinerary to Cheryl (frasch.1) for payment.

Pre-Payment of Conference Registration
Anyone eligible for travel support from the Department may request pre-payment of conference registration up to the maximum allowed.

Procedure: Submit your completed registration form to Cheryl or Lynne, who will then request that a check be issued and sent to the conference organizers with your registration form.

Reimbursement of Covered Expenses
Reimbursement of covered expenses can be made only after the trip is completed.

Procedure: Submit appropriate receipts and other required documentation to Cheryl or Lynne. If you have a number of expenses and/or a number of receipts or if you traveled to more than one destination, making an appointment to go over your request might facilitate processing. Once your request has been prepared, you will be asked to stop in to sign a statement certifying that the expenses you have submitted are actual and reasonable, were incurred for the purpose stated on the form and in accordance with University policies, and are not being paid under a different kind of order or by a third-party sponsor.

Cautions
No individual conducting University business may personally benefit from travel or other expenses paid by the University. Therefore you may accept travel incentives, such as frequent flyer miles, only if you apply them toward another University business trip. Individuals who accrue such benefits are required to keep a log detailing how they were used and to be ready to present that log if it should be requested by an auditor.

The reimbursement requests that make their way through processing most quickly and smoothly have the following characteristics:

• pre-approval from the Travel Office
• purpose of travel clearly tied to University business
• an itinerary clearly supporting the stated business purpose for the trip
• expenses that clearly fall into one of the allowable categories: transportation, lodging, registration
• dated and itemized receipts for all expenses (see entry on Receipts)
  Receipts that are incomplete or that show charges for or payments by more than one individual may seriously complicate processing and compromise reimbursement. Travel allocations and approvals are awarded to individual university employees who go on travel status solely for the purpose of conducting University business. While sharing expenses is laudable and not discouraged, each University traveler must take care to obtain receipts that clearly distinguish the expenses s/he incurred and paid in order to establish eligibility for reimbursement.
  
  Taking family members on trips calls the business purpose of at least some part of the travel into question. A University employee on approved travel status cannot be reimbursed for paying someone else’s expenses, even if that person is also a University employees on approved travel status.

University travel policies and procedures are currently under review and expected to change during the course of autumn quarter. The changes will likely be focused on the procedures staff are required to follow, but we will update policies and procedures as necessary.



Cheryl Frasch, Fiscal Human Resources Officer
Valerie Lee, Professor and Chair

The Department of English, 421 Denney Hall, 164 W 17th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210-1340 Phone: (614) 292-6065 Fax: (614) 292-7816

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