A Request for Travel Authorization must be completed prior to travel, and approval is delegated to the immediate supervisor. Approved requests must be routed through the department chair or director and forwarded to the appropriate Dean or other administrative officer for approval. PeopleSoft routes the document to all necessary approvers.

Travel allowances will be for expenses involving meals and lodging, not to exceed daily rates specified in the applicable travel regulations. This applies for both in-state and out-of-state travel.  Commercial Lodging Receipts must be submitted for reimbursement of claims. The transportation allowances will follow the provisions of the general travel regulations.  Meal expenses incurred on a calendar day that did not involve an overnight stay away from the employee’s designated headquarters will not be reimbursed.

The use of third party websites such as Orbitz, Hotels.com, Travelocity, etc. are not allowed for making packaged travel arrangements for University travel.  All travelers must use the University contracted travel agencies to make travel arrangements. (Anthony Travel) 

A receipt that has been altered by any person other than the entity issuing the receipt is unacceptable. A receipt to which additional information has been added is considered unaltered if the information does not conflict with the original information on the receipt.  The paper version of a receipt delivered through the Internet or electronic mail by a Commercial Lodging Establishment, travel agency or broker is considered original.

University must use the federal rates provided by the General Services Administration (GSA) for both in-state and out-of-state travel within the Contiguous United States. University employees who travel to Alaska, Hawaii, a U.S. possession or a foreign country must be reimbursed according to the guidelines established by the GSA.

FOR MARC STUDENTS:

1. It is important to notify the MARC office of your desire to attend a conference/meeting/seminar in a timely manner, and your mentor needs to agree that it is a purposeful and beneficial trip to make, in regard to your on-going research project.


2. The MARC office has no possible means of either reserving lodging, nor paying for said lodging.  The MARC office has no commercial credit card. The attendee is required to reserve lodging before traveling, and to pay for said lodging when checking out.  Always be sure to obtain a check out invoice/receipt that shows the daily room amount and the breakdown of the fees/taxes and your name.


3. If an attendee has lodging that exceeds the GSA amount for the maximum daily lodging per diem, the attendee will only be reimbursed up to the allowed amount lodging per diem.  Any overage cannot be reimbursed, as the MARC grant does not have any local account that would allow for such a transaction. When checking on the maximum daily lodging per diem, do not include taxes/fees, as they do not play a role in the basic allowed lodging per diem. Every city has a different per diem allowance, so be sure to check on the GSA website to see what the amount is.

STUDENT PAYEE INFORMATION FORM:

All MARC students need to fill out the Student Payee Information Form and return it to the MARC office for processing.  This form will be faxed to Accounts Payable, rather than emailed, as it contains very personal information.  In order to receive per diem funds, should you travel to participate in a Summer Research Experience, this information must be in place before the per diem request can be made. It also can be used to provide information that can enter you into the PeopleSoft system, in order to provide travel authorizations and reimbursements.

PROCURING AN AIRLINE ITINERARY

It is preferred that the MARC office purchase your airline tickets, rather than having the student buying it and then requesting reimbursements.  That is because of the need to have a Travel Authorization number and account number that is given to Anthony Travel, to provide needed documentation for them to purchase an airline ticket for any MARC student. If anyone associated with the MARC grant purchases their ticket off of a third party website, you will not be reimbursed for the purchase of the ticket.  If you ever need to rent a car and wish to have reimbursement, please contact the MARC office to find out who the rental car companies that UTEP networks with.

At any time after your plane ticket is procured by the MARC office, you want to change your itinerary, the charges to change the itinerary will be the sole responsibility of the MARC student to pay, as changing airline itineraries does not benefit the MARC grant, and is not permitted by Contracts and Grants, under their guidelines. No reimbursement will be made to you if you change your already purchase airline ticket.