Faculty Travel Information

University approval is required for any official travel more than 25 miles from your assigned campus. Travel between Tarleton State campuses and locations, including the Timberlake Biological Field Station, is exempt.

The COSM Travel Request and Funding Application satisfies only the college-level travel request and travel funding requirements. Faculty members are still responsible for completing all departmental and university travel approval requirements. University travel guidelines and information can be be found here.

Domestic travel requests should be submitted and approved at least 10 days before departure.

International travel requests require additional approvals and must be submitted and approved through the Emburse Expense Reporting System at least 14 days prior to departure. A Foreign Travel Request Form is no longer required or accepted as of December 1, 2025. Full international travel policies and procedures can be found here.

Student Travel

This application is only for faculty travel. Student travel must follow the university’s student travel procedures, which can be found here.

Travel Criteria

• Research activities, including scholarly presentations, scholarly and creative activities, field research, and research workshops.
• Instructional and professional development activities, including instructional or assessment workshops, presentations, course development, and course redesign.
• Academic or professional meetings where the faculty member serves in a leadership role (such as conference section chair or professional organization officer).

To qualify for funding, the faculty member must present at the conference or receive critical training.

Funding

Eligible permanent faculty members may apply for up to $1,000.00 to support one trip per fiscal year (September 1 through August 31). Award amounts are based on available funding, the number of applications received, and application priority.

Departments are strongly encouraged to provide matching funds.

Eligibility

Only permanent faculty members are eligible to apply for a COSM travel funding award. When available funding is insufficient to support all requests, priority is given first to assistant professors, followed by other tenure-earning faculty. Requests from tenured and non-tenure-track faculty are considered based on available funding.

Adjunct and visiting faculty are not eligible for COSM travel funding.

Beginning with the 2026 – 2027 academic year, faculty will use a single Kuali form for both travel requests and travel funding applications. Faculty members may submit a travel request and later edit their request form to add the funding request.

Applications must be submitted through the Kuali application form by 5:00 PM on the following dates:

Application Cycle:	Deadline
Fall 2026	September 18, 2026
Spring 2027	January 8, 2027
Summer 2027	April 9, 2027

For spring and summer travel, faculty members may apply for travel funds by the fall application cycle if all required information is available, or may wait for the applicable deadline. Trips that occur prior to fall decisions (e.g. from August through early October) will be reimbursed if the request meets the criteria and is approved.

Funding decisions are typically made within three weeks following each application deadline.

• Travel request approval does not guarantee funding approval. Funding applications do not guarantee funding will be approved.
• If approved travel with funding is canceled or not completed, awarded funds must be returned so they may be reallocated. Please notify the COSM Dean’s Office as soon as possible at cosm@tarleton.edu.
• Any unused funds must be returned and may not be applied to a second trip without prior approval from the Dean. This will only be considered on a case-by-case basis.