SHASS Travel & Discretionary Annual Fund
About the SHASS Travel & Discretionary Annual Fund
The SHASS Travel & Discretionary Annual Fund provides annual support for eligible full-time faculty, instructional staff, and non-academic staff who do not have access to other funding. The fund helps you pursue professional activities that strengthen learning, teaching, and growth across SHASS.
The program’s core purpose is to ensure resources are available to those who would otherwise lack access.
01. About the Fund
Eligibility
You are eligible if all the following apply:
- You are full-time at MIT.
- Your appointment duration is more than one year.
- Exception: lecturers on annual renewable appointments are eligible after completing two semesters of full-time teaching at SHASS.
- Non-academic staff must have completed six months of service.
- Your position is funded by MIT’s General Institute Budget. Staff supported by sponsored research (including most “soft-money” labs or centers) are not eligible.
Not eligible
- Faculty with more than $10,000 in aggregate discretionary funds at the start of the MIT fiscal year.
- Current faculty chair holders (including career development and full professorships).
- Part-time staff, visitors, emeritus, and staff on temporary appointments—including predoctoral and postdoctoral researchers.
02. Eligibility
What the Fund supports
Expenses must support your professional activity and your contributions to the SHASS community. Requests should be clearly job-related and not personal in nature.
03. What the Fund supports
How to apply
- Prepare your request describing the activity and how it supports your professional work.
- Submit your request to your unit head and the appropriate director of finance and administration for approval.
- Obtain approval before making purchases or initiating travel. Retroactive approvals are not allowed.
04. How to apply
Additional guidelines and resources
Notes
- Conference travel must be associated with a professional society.
- Unused funds do not carry forward to future years.
- The program runs on the MIT fiscal year starting July 1 and ends June 30th.
- You may apply year-round.
Roles and responsibilities
Applicant
- Ensure the proposal is professional in nature and clearly connected to your work.
- Consult your director of administration and finance with any policy questions.
Department leadership
- Verify the connection to professional activity and track requests.
- Consult the assistant dean of finance and administration about allowability questions.
- Provide the Dean’s Office with batch funding requests (at least twice a year) and a brief justification for approvals.
Dean’s Office
- Fund approved requests via transfers to units.
- Audit approvals to ensure they were granted before expenses or travel occurred.
- Review the program for effectiveness, impact, and sustainability.
05. Additional guidelines and resources
