Policy Title	SCHOOL OF BUSINESS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUNDS
Type or category of Policy:	School of Business Policy
Approval Authority:
Responsible Executive:	Dean, School of Business
Responsible Office:	School of Business
Owner Contact:
Reviewed By:
Reviewed Date:	June 1, 2015
Last Revised and Effective Date of Revision:	May 6, 2020

Funds available for professional development are designed to provide assistance to faculty members in obtaining or retaining their qualification as a Scholarly Academic or a Scholarly Practitioner. The following guidelines are established to provide direction in determining what funds are available and the process required to obtain reimbursement. 

In general, professional development funds are used to reimburse faculty members for expenses incurred in presenting papers at regional, national and international academic conferences. In addition, funds can be used for professional association membership fees and, in some cases, publication fees. To receive reimbursement for publication fees, the journal needs to be listed in the Australian Business Deans Council List. ¹   

Tenure-track faculty members have up $1,900 and tenured faculty members have up to $1,500 of available professional development funds. These funds are specifically designated for each individual faculty member’s individual use. One individual’s professional development funds cannot be transferred to another faculty member or used to augment another faculty member’s professional development expenses. Visiting and part-time faculty members may request reimbursement and decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.

The following steps need to be followed in order to obtain reimbursement:

1. All requests need prior approval. Prior approval is required to ensure the request is in compliance with this policy and for planning purposes. To obtain approval, an expense form (https://www.siena.edu/schools/school-of-business/travel-expense-request-form/) needs to be completed. 
2. You will also need to forward supporting documentation that your request complies with this policy (e.g. acceptance letter for a conference presentation, acceptance letter at a journal) to the School of Business office. 
3. Provide copies of all receipts detailing all reimbursable expenses. 
4. Provide the School of Business with a copy of the proceedings from the conference or copy of the journal article. 

This policy and the dollar amounts available are subject to change. If a change is required, all faculty members will be notified and prior approved professional development expenses will not be impacted by any changes.   

1 Siena defines a "Quality Publication" as any scholarly writing that is: (1) Subject to a documented peer review process and (2) Listed on the Australian Business Deans Council’s Journal Quality List. When deviating from this definition, it is the responsibility of the faculty member to provide sufficient information to demonstrate that the scholarly writing meets a similar standard of excellence.