To be good stewards of funds, the university is issuing the following travel guidelines. These guidelines are effective immediately, but travel that has been approved before Jan. 21, 2025, will be permitted.
Until further notice, only essential or mission-critical travel will be permitted when employees are requesting reimbursements and using institutional funds. Essential or mission-critical travel include:
- Official university business (e.g., attendance at in-person-only legislative hearings; receipt of national award/recognition for NIU).
- Whether travel falls under official university business will be determined by the Office of the President. All requests for official university business travel should be submitted to Chief Strategy Officer Matt Streb (mstreb@niu.edu) for approval. No official university business travel should be scheduled before receiving approval. If possible, please provide the request at least two weeks in advance of the travel date.
- Travel related to student classes or that uses student funds.
- Decisions related to the appropriate staffing needed for student travel will be made by the appropriate college or division.
- Presenting a paper or serving as a chair/discussant at a conference.
- Academic conference participation is defined by the UFA collective bargaining agreement.
- Development/fundraising visits.
- Athletics travel (e.g., competition and recruiting).
- Travel related to student recruitment.
- Travel related to partnership development.
- Grant-funded travel.
- Travel related to required training when no virtual option is available.
- Travel related to revenue-generating initiatives (e.g., consulting).
- Travel related to participation on boards (e.g., professional associations).
In cases where travel is permitted, the following should take place:
- All essential or mission-critical travel must be approved by the appropriate vice president or dean before the travel occurs. Each division should have a request for professional travel form that must be completed and approved to receive reimbursement.
- Individuals permitted to travel are expected to provide their supervisors with reports of the outcome of the trips.
- No more than two (2) individuals from the same department or unit will be permitted to attend the same event or trip, unless it is an academic conference or specifically justified and pre-approved by the relevant dean or vice president.
- When travel is necessary because it is essential or mission-critical, all efforts should be made to lessen the cost of travel (e.g., choosing the lowest-cost means of travel fares and rates; least-expensive location when multiple sites are offered).
- Conference hotels might not always be the least-expensive option.
- Travel necessitated by the need to obtain required training must be limited to situations where no comparable online or local training opportunity is available.
- When possible, use of teleconferences, video-conferencing technologies, online meeting capabilities, etc., must be used in lieu of traveling to events.
- Just because travel is permitted does not necessarily mean that it should take place. Divisions and colleges should be prudent in their decisions regarding whether travel should occur.
Any exceptions to these travel guidelines must be approved by the appropriate dean or vice president.