Departmental Funding
What is departmental funding?
Departmental funding is money SASgov has set aside for the graduate students of each department (or more properly in Penn-speak, each graduate group) to use at their discretion. SASgov’s funding comes from the fees you, as a SAS or LPS grad student, pay to the university; we want to give you access to some of that money, so you can use it directly to benefit the graduate student community in your department.
What can we use it for?
Departmental funding may be used to throw a party, put on a happy hour, invite a guest speaker, provide refreshments for a reading or dissertation group, purchase TA office supplies, spruce up the student lounge – anything that benefits graduate students in the department collectively.
Who can apply for departmental funding?
Any SAS or LPS grad student can submit a request for departmental funding. But the request must be approved by your department’s SASgov representative, and your SASgov representative must not have missed more than two meetings in the semester of the request (Click here to see attendance records.)
How do I apply, and what happens next?
First, plan ahead. SASgov cannot help you with your request if the date of the required purchases is too close. There are two cases: (1) You need to make purchases from a single vendor (e.g. buy pizza for a seminar) and no alcohol is involved. In this case, please make your request one week before the deadline. For online orders, e.g. Fresh Grocer, please allow two weeks. (2) Your request is more complicated (multiple vendors) or alcohol is involved. Then contact sasgov-finance@sas.upenn.edu at least three weeks before the event.
Instructions for submitting a funding request can be found below. Once your funding request has been approved, there are a few options for putting your proposed budget into action, and the SASgov VP-finance will contact you to determine which of these options is most suitable in your particular case. The best option is for SAS Finance to make your purchases directly: you tell the SASgov VP-finance what to order (food, beer, a tab at one of Penn’s approved-vendor restaurants, for example), and the payments are taken care of for you. The other option is to have the money transferred to your department; you then work with your department administrator to spend the money as planned in your funding request. For more information on the processes for spending SASgov money, visit http://www.sasgov.org/funding/spending-your-sasgov-money/
Application instructions
| Eligibility | The department’s SASgov representative(s) must not have missed more than two meetings in the semester of the request. (Click here to see attendance records.) The department’s SASgov representative must approve the request via email to sasgov-finance@sas.upenn.edu. |
| Maximum Award | The amount of departmental funding for which a department may apply depends on the number of students in the department. Click here to look up your department’s max award, eligibility, and use of funds to date. |
| Conditions | -SASgov requires the use of Penn approved vendors whenever possible. So, for example, if you propose to buy pizza from the Best House, we’ll suggest you use Powelton Pizza or Dominos. See www.purchasing.upenn.edu/buyinfo/suppliers for lists of approved vendors, or email sasgov-finance@sas.upenn.edu with inquiries. -Alcohol may not be purchased out of state and transported to Pennsylvania. |
| Application Process | Submit funding request form, including a budget for how the funding will be used, at least 3 weeks in advance of your event/purchase date. |
| Funding Request Form | Funding requests should be made by email to the SASgov finance chair at sasgov-finance@sas.upenn.edu. Describe clearly in an email what your request will be. If you have been through the procedure before, Download the forms here. One should use the “meeting” form for events where one vendor will do, and no alcohol is needed. For all other events, please fill out the “Event” form. Be complete and list the purchases you’d like to make from specific vendors. |
| Approval | Once your request is approved, SAS finance will coordinate with you regarding purchases. Do not spend your own money with the expectation of being reimbursed. Visit http://www.sasgov.org/funding/spending-your-sasgov-money/ for more information on the processes for making purchases. |
| Deadline | To guarantee consideration, requests must be submitted by April 1st, 2010. |
Click here to see which departments have used their departmental funds, and what they have used them for last year (2008-09).
Past Departmental Funding Uses (2007-08 Highlights)
- Grad students in the History and Sociology of Science department went for appetizers and drinks at La Terrasse to celebrate students completing their qualifying exams.
- Grad students in the Music Department sipped wine and ate Pizza Rustica pizza while third years presented their dissertation proposals.
- Grad students in Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, Ancient History, and Classical Studies used their combined funding to throw an annual interdepartmental barbecue.
