Up in the Air: Kent State travel policy leaves room for interpretation
Moderating a travel policy at a large institution tends to be a lofty task. At Kent State, this means keeping faculty members up to speed on policies before they leave on business trips around the globe, and ensuring rules are followed.
A university-wide travel policy, spelled out in 2,300 words on Kent State’s online policy register, sets regulations for transportation, lodging and what qualifies as university-approved trips.
Working from these guidelines, individual schools and departments can impose stricter policies as they see fit.
Faculty members typically fund trips out of pocket and submit expense reimbursements upon return. From there, the forms are approved through a chain of two or more administrators.
To illustrate the process and procedures of reimbursing, take, for example, the “Comparing Diversities” conference held at Kent State’s Florence, Italy, campus last December.
The College of Communication and Information (CCI) sent 11 faculty members to the gathering, which was organized by the Office of Global Education (OGE) and Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). It consisted of sessions and lectures exploring how diversity definitions differ in international cultures.
From acquired documents, the trip cost at least $40,075.52 total. CCI alone spent more than OGE and DEI combined — upward of $19,278.86.
Dean of CCI Amy Reynolds, who attended the conference, originally planned to take one or two faculty members with her, but decided to approve more when several professors and directors of CCI schools expressed interest.
“I was actually surprised there was that much interest,” Reynolds said. “When we get a lot of interest, what I usually say is there has to be a clear outcome.”
Funding for the trip was drawn from the Dean’s Discretionary Fund, and participants received flight reimbursements up to $2,000 each.
While Reynolds said she typically prefers to approve travel in cases where faculty are speaking or presenting, this conference — in which they only attended and absorbed lectures from external keynote speakers — created an opportunity to see and make connections at the Florence campus.
“We decided there would really be some benefit to the administrative folks going because they hadn’t been before,” Reynolds said. “They hadn’t seen the campus, they hadn’t met the faculty, they really didn’t know the student experience.”
Mark Goodman, a professor of journalism at Kent State, was one of the attendees who visited the Florence campus for the first time. Since the trip, a proposal of his was approved to teach a summer class at the international campus.
“It helped me think about ways to incorporate diversity into my existing classes here and international perspectives on diversity,” he said.
When it comes to meals, Kent State follows a protocol of reimbursing per diems, or predetermined rate estimates figured by destinations. These are set by government agencies like the General Services Administration and the U.S. Department of State.
For example, GSM per diems for Cleveland and New York City breakdown to $31 and $34 for dinners, respectively.
On the Florence trip, participants were offered $19 for breakfast, $23 for lunch and $60 for dinner. If there are non breakfast-eaters, they are allowed to opt out of the per diem allowance for that meal.
Using per diems in a travel policy can create gray areas. In cases where a per diem rate exceeds the amount someone spent on a meal, the person is still reimbursed for the full rate. In turn, if someone spends more than the per diem, the rest of the bill comes from the traveler’s pocket.
Per Diems Explained
“I ate cheap because I wanted to make sure I got all my money back whenever the per diem came back,” said Amanda Leu, who also attended the “Comparing Diversities” conference. “I think I even made out on the per diem, possibly.”
“The only way you could pocket money is if you asked for a per diem and then never ate, but honestly, that wouldn’t really be worth it,” Goodman said. “I think most people just can’t be bothered to do that because you’re never going to get rich on it.”
Also, since one could underspend on a meal, the total per diem rate could also technically cover a faculty member’s alcohol — an expense disallowed for reimbursement by the university.
“From our perspective … we don’t know what they ate,” said Audrey Lingenfelter, director of RCM and business operations for the CCI dean’s office. “The [per diem] is the maximum they’re allowed.”
Kent State isn’t the only public university in Ohio to use per diems as part of travel policy. The University of Akron, Ohio State University and Ohio University all operate on similar protocols. Per diems are often go-to procedures for large institutions to make the reimbursement process simpler.
“The beauty of (a per diem), from a traveller’s perspective, is I don’t have to keep track of all those receipts,” Goodman said.
For administrators on the approval end, keeping up with receipts isn’t worth the extra labor, even if per diems could potentially allot more money than necessary to cover costs in some instances.
“We encourage faculty to do per diems and not to turn in receipts because it’s just a nightmare to try to go through these things,” Reynolds said. “It’s just easier to do it this way.”
For someone like Marcello Fantoni, who travels 80 to 100 days each year, travelling internationally is essential to his Kent State position. The associate provost of the Office of Global Education travels so often to recruit international students. “If I don’t have business trips, we don’t have international students,” he said.
Per university travel policy, employees are expected to select the most cost effective plane seats available, with some exceptions.
“My title allows me to travel business class for flights over five and a half hours long,” said Fantoni, who spent $5,716.16 on a non-economy round trip from Boston to Florence last winter.
Fantoni also travels to foster connections with foreign universities and government representatives, which he says can’t always be done via video or phone calls.
“If you have to meet with the president of a foreign university, you don’t Skype with the president of a foreign university,” he said. “They expect that you visit.”
For meetings with colleagues, long distance communication tools suffice. “Why would I want to go to South Korea [for example] and not be at home with my family if I can get that done in a Skype call in 20 minutes?” he said.
Any department looking to invest in travel tries to weigh the outcomes and ensure the spending will benefit their work.
“I know there are always optics,” Reynolds said. “If people think I’m just sending all the administrators to Florence for a vacation — that is not what was happening. We really have to make sure that we are being good stewards of these resources and that we show that these things actually in fact do have outcomes when we invest big amounts of money.”
Amanda Leu, coordinator of academic diversity outreach for CCI, said the conference gave her new perspectives to bring back to her position on campus. Plans for more diversity conferences like the one attended in Florence last fall are in the works, she said.
“The reviews are mixed, honestly I think, from the faculty. Some of them felt like they went and it was great and the experience they had was awesome,” Leu said. “Could they have done a lot of the stuff here in the United States? Arguably, maybe. But I would argue that because we were all over there on this trip together, it awarded us that opportunity to sit down and talk with one another in an environment that we would never have been able to do so otherwise.”
When it comes down to determine administrative spending, Kent State puts high value on traveling to build connections for future partnerships and professional development, spreading Golden Flash visibility around the globe.
“The policies sort of give you that umbrella of what you can and can’t do … but there’s a lot of latitude,” Reynolds said. “What you want to think about is how your decisions about how you’re using funds and resources for travel support the central mission of the university.”
Anna Huntsman, Benjamin VanHoose and Bruno Beidacki are higher education administration reporters. Contact us at ahuntsm1@kent.edu, bvanhoos@kent.edu and bbeidack@kent.edu.
Video written, shot and edited by Anna Huntsman. Story written by Benjamin VanHoose. Graphics by Bruno Beidacki. Interviews conducted by all.
Discover the ins and outs of KSU's travel policy—and how administrators justify spending on business trips. #JMCRPP https://t.co/DQj3pXyKjI
— Benjamin VanHoose (@BenVanHoose) September 19, 2017
How do KSU employees get reimbursed when they travel for work? We break down policy, per diems and more: https://t.co/LZ5DxWA88D #JMCRPP
— Anna Huntsman (@AnnaHuntsmanTV2) September 19, 2017
Your professor went to a conference in Chicago and Kent State paid for it? Check out exactly how that works: https://t.co/aVnOX4aEVk #JMCRPP
— Bruno Beidacki (@brunobeidacki) September 19, 2017
