Faculty Travel & Research (FTR) Fund

FTR (Faculty Travel and Research) funds are intended to support faculty scholarly, creative, and professional development activities. Use of FTR funds is governed by existing IRS rules, overarching college policies, and the guidelines below.

On this page

• Allocations for 2026-27
• How to use your funds
• Key policies and deadlines
• What FTR supports
• Help and contacts
• Previous changes

Allocations for 2026-27

Appointment	Annual allocation
Tenured and tenure-track faculty	$2,300 ($2,000 base plus $300 from the President’s discretionary fund; the final year of a two-year supplement)
MSFEO participants	$1,000
NTT faculty	Up to $1,750, prorated by FTE
Returning visiting faculty	Up to $1,250, prorated by FTE
Newly hired visiting faculty (1.0 FTE)	$1,250
Postdoctoral fellows	Negotiated as part of the offer
FTR allocations are reviewed annually. Additional FTR funding may be provided for endowed chairs or special institutional appointments.

How to use your funds

Expenses are paid and reimbursed through Workday. The FTR Workday Job Aid walks through how to:

• Request a cash or travel advance (a Spend Authorization)
• Pay for expenses by creating an Expense Report
• Identify and populate your FTR worktag
• Report and reconcile expenses
• Check your FTR balance

To pay a non-Macalester individual for services, create a Supplier Invoice; the person being paid will likely need to complete some tax forms.

P-cards. FTR-specific declining-balance P-cards are being discontinued. Cards expiring 8/31/2026 will not be renewed, and all remaining FTR P-cards sunset on 12/31/2026. Using other Macalester P-cards for FTR expenses is strongly discouraged.

Key policies and deadlines

• Fiscal year and reporting deadline. The fiscal year runs June 1 to May 31. Expenses from the prior fiscal year must be reported within the first week of June; later requests may not be reimbursable. Best practice is to submit expense reports in the first week of every month.
• Rollover. A remaining balance between $100 and your base allocation rolls over automatically to the next fiscal year. Non-base FTR funds received for other services do not roll over unless otherwise specified.
• Future-year expenses. Airfare, registrations, and lodging purchased this fiscal year for events in the next fiscal year are charged to next year’s allocation.
• Overspending. Expense reports that exceed the available balance are returned for correction.
• New faculty. FTR funds are available from the first day of the appointment. There is no lookback for expenses incurred before that date.
• Departing faculty. Access to FTR funds ends on the last day of employment.
• Tax-exempt purchases. Some FTR expenses are tax-exempt when you provide the seller with Macalester’s tax-exempt number. Contact pcard@macalester.edu for details and guidance.

What FTR supports

FTR funds support goods, services, and travel whose primary and direct purpose is to advance your scholarship, creative work, and professional development.

Commonly covered

• Travel to conferences, workshops, and meetings, or to meet collaborators and conduct research: airfare, lodging, registration, ground transportation, parking, mileage, and meals
• Books, journal subscriptions, and research materials
• Research supplies
• Publishing costs, including manuscript preparation, article processing charges, and editing
• Professional association dues
• Expenses of creative work
• Research assistants and other paid services, paid through the college. Please contact ftr@macalester.edu first, before the work begins.
• Computers and tablets for tenured, tenure-track, and NTT faculty
• Software, AI tools, and cloud services for your scholarly and creative work
• Your development as a teacher, such as course design workshops, pedagogy conferences, and faculty-specific technology and tools

Guidelines for specific expenses

• Travel follows the college’s reimbursable travel policies for ground transportation, airfare, lodging, and meals.
• Computers, laptops, and tablets must be ordered through your Academic Technologist.
• Software, AI, and cloud services must be directly tied to your scholarly, creative, or professional development work. Be prepared to explain why offerings already available through ITS do not meet the need.
• Meals outside of travel are reimbursable only when directly tied to peer scholarly collaboration, networking, or mentorship, with an itemized receipt, the names of attendees, and a detailed description of the purpose.
• Alcohol is reimbursable when directly tied to scholarly collaboration, networking, or faculty mentorship, provided expenses are reasonable and moderate, with an itemized receipt.

Teaching-related expenses

• Covered: your own development as a teacher, such as course design workshops, pedagogy conferences, and faculty-specific technology and tools.
• Department costs: the costs of delivering a course to students, such as printing course materials, course supplies, and classroom or student-facing technology, are paid from department budgets. Contact ITS for classroom technology.

Not covered

• Items substantially for personal use, comfort, or general utility, even if occasionally used for work. Examples include home office furniture and equipment, cell phone plans, utility bills, and babysitting or pet-sitting fees.

Not sure whether something qualifies? Ask ftr@macalester.edu before you buy.

Need more than your FTR allocation covers? Wallace Scholarly Activities (WSA) grants offer up to $6,000 for scholarly and creative work, with application rounds each fall and spring.

Help and contacts

• Workday steps (advances, expense reports, worktags, checking your balance): FTR Workday Job Aid
• Workday and P-card questions: pcard@macalester.edu
• Your allocation: Marga Miller, Assistant Provost, millermk@macalester.edu
• Everything else: ftr@macalester.edu

Previous changes

Material changes to the FTR guidelines by fiscal year. For questions about which rules applied to a past expense, contact ftr@macalester.edu.

• 2026–27 (current)

  • Workday replaces Wells Fargo P-card reconciliation and paper application forms for advances, expense reports, and checking your balance.
  • Software, AI tools, and cloud services covered when tied to your scholarly or creative work.
  • Your development as a teacher, such as course design workshops and pedagogy conferences, explicitly covered.
  • Meals covered when tied to peer scholarly collaboration, networking, or mentorship, with an itemized receipt, attendees, and purpose.
  • Prior-year expenses can be reported through the first week of June.
  • Course-running costs, such as printing course materials and course supplies, are paid from department budgets.
  • Items substantially for personal use do not qualify even if occasionally used for work.
  • Expense reports over your available balance are returned for correction.
  • FTR P-cards expiring 8/31/2026 are not renewed, and all FTR P-cards close on 12/31/2026.
  • Postdoctoral fellow allocations are set in the offer.

• 2025–26

  • Temporary $300 supplement for tenured and tenure-track faculty ($2,300 total) for 2025–26 and 2026–27. The supplement does not roll over.
  • Rollover threshold raised from $25 to $100.
  • Overspent balances from the prior year honored one final time, through May 2026.
  • Technology must be purchased through ITS to be reimbursed (previously recommended).
  • Meals with research collaborators added as allowed. Food for classes and student gatherings, and home office equipment, added as not allowed.
  • New faculty can use FTR from the first day of their appointment, with no reimbursement for earlier expenses. Previously, new tenure-track faculty could use FTR from the end of August.
  • Questions and reimbursements centralized at ftr@macalester.edu; each faculty member assigned a personal FTR activity code for tracking balances.
  • Postdoctoral fellow allocations set individually (previously $1,750).

• 2024–25

  • P-card receipts uploaded directly in Wells Fargo instead of emailed.

• 2023–24

  • Allocations: $2,000 tenured and tenure-track; $1,750 NTT (prorated by FTE) and pre- and postdoctoral fellows; $1,250 full-time visiting; $1,000 MSFEO.
  • FTR P-cards, issued in March 2023, used by tenured, tenure-track, and NTT faculty. Visiting faculty continue to use the FTR application form.
  • Computers and tablets allowed for tenured, tenure-track, and NTT faculty, purchased with ITS; not allowed for visiting faculty or pre- and postdoctoral fellows.

• Before 2023

  FTR supported faculty professional development, such as travel to professional meetings and workshops, research materials, manuscript preparation, and professional organization dues. Expenses were reimbursed through a paper application form, and P-cards could not be used for FTR. Balances over $25 rolled over, up to one year’s allocation.