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Professional, Academic, and Creative Work (formerly Travel) Grant

The GSO Grant Program provides funding to graduate students in an effort to defray the cost of attending academic and professional conferences. PAC grants are awarded on the basis of merit, and are intended to partially reimburse transportation, lodging, registration, and membership expenses. The GSO PAC Grant Committee makes final decisions concerning all awards. To do so, all applications are graded on a rubric. The committee does not make comments on applications, and will not disclose the details of a specific application’s decision.

Note: All students who complete the application will receive a grant; however grant amounts are determined by the quality of the application, submitted materials, and recommendation letter. Grant awards can range between $50 and $500. For this reason, we highly urge you to first review the rubric, and then fill out the application accordingly.

The Grant Committee is overseen by the Graduate Student Organization Senate. The PAC Grant program is funded by the Graduate Student Activity Fee, which is paid by each main campus enrolled, matriculated graduate student at Syracuse University. These students are eligible to apply for the travel grant. Questions about the program should be directed to gsotravelgrant@syr.edu. More information on the use of the student fee can be found on the budget page.

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis, with deadlines monthly throughout the year. The Grant Committee meets once after each deadline to consider all applications received by that time. For all deadlines, you must start your travel on or after June 1st of that academic year. So for example, if you apply during the 2023-2024 academic year, it must be for travel that occurred as of June 1st 2023.

Deadlines for Applications:

We will begin reviewing the applications received after April 15th, 2023 in September when the PAC Grant Committee reconvenes. If you want your application to be considered in this group, please ensure that your application is submitted by September 15th, 2023. Applications received after 11:59pm on the most recent deadline will be reviewed along with the other applications received by the next deadline (October 15th). Award notifications can be expected at the end of each month. Please check on the status if your application in the Orange Tracker System.

  • September 15th, 2023
  • October 15th, 2023
  • November 15th, 2023
  • January 15th, 2024
  • February 15th, 2024
  • March 15th, 2024
  • April 15th, 2024

Application

The PAC Grant Application can be found online at our PAC Grant Application page. There are a number of guidelines to consider when filling out the form. PLEASE read them all.

  1. The applying student must be a main campus enrolled, matriculated graduate student at SU, both at the time of submitting an application, and at the time of travel.
  2. Students must be applying for funding toward attendance at an academic or professional conference, case competition, workshop, or other similar event.
  3. Applicants will be given higher consideration if they are the first author or primary presenter for a presentation at a conference, or a professional student attending a conference.
    1. Professional students are defined as those students whose degrees are considered professional by the university and/or whose purpose is training for a specific profession. Examples of these include, but are not limited to, Business Administration (MBA) and Architecture (M.Arch).
  4. All applicants are required to request funding from other sources, such as their department, advisor, college, etc. Students should not be dependent solely on GSO subsidies since these funds are not guaranteed. You do not have to be successful in your requests for funding, so long as you have attempted to find other sources.
  5. Additional weight will be given to applicants who have made efforts to reduce their costs and find additional sources of funding toward their travel.
  6. Meals and food are not reimbursable expenses.
  7. Each student is eligible to receive one travel grant per academic year. If you apply unsuccessfully, you may apply for a different conference in the same academic year. The academic year is defined as fall semester through the summer sessions of the following calendar year.

Timeline

Once you submit an application, that does not make it complete!! Your recommender MUST upload their recommendation letter via the link they are emailed. Make sure they check their junk folder for the email if they miss it.

Once this letter is uploaded, we are notified of your complete application and it is available to the committee. The committee meets within a month of receiving the complete application.

Applicants will be notified of the status of their application within approximately 21 business days of the deadline.  Students who are awarded funds must seek reimbursement of expenses.  The GSO cannot pay for these expenses directly, so once you have incurred the expense, you must apply for reimbursement and provide the necessary documentation.

Guidelines for PAC Grant Reimbursement

  1. PAC Grants are classified as taxable income by the IRS. Students may have part of the award withheld by the university for income tax purposes. This is not something we have control over at the GSO.
  2. The student who received the reward is the only individual who can be paid out from that award. The GSO can only reimburse for actual expenses incurred by that student.
    • The student’s department, college, or school may also be reimbursed for travel expenses incurred by that student.
  3. Before any reimbursements can be issued, the GSO Comptroller must receive proof of registration at the conference.  For presenters, documentation indicating said presentation must also be submitted.
  4. To receive reimbursement, the student must submit the following:
    1. Original, itemized receipts or bills, scanned and submitted in PDF format
    2. Proof of attendance/registration in any form
    3. A GSO Request for Payment form
  5. All reimbursement paperwork should be submitted to the GSO Comptroller.
  6. Reimbursement paperwork should be submitted within 30 days of completing the travel. Please email the GSO Comptroller or the Financial Secretary if you cannot meet this deadline.

If a department, college, or school made payments on the student’s behalf, the same procedure should be followed, but specifying payment to the relevant university unit instead of the student.