Financial Administration of Off-Campus Programs

Financial Administration Procedures

Off-campus programs incur costs that are typically not necessary for on-campus instructional programs.  Student fees for off-campus programs should be established at a level to cover these additional, unusual costs.  The following operating procedures have been designed to minimize the administrative burden on faculty and staff leaders while at the same time providing documentation of the financial transactions.

General

All students participating in an academic program must be registered for the class conducted as an off-campus program. Fees will be paid to the Bursar’s office just as if the student were on campus. Upon the student′s acceptance into the program, the Bursar’s office bills each student through the student’s Rhodes account for the total amount of the program, enabling faculty and staff members to have immediate access to funds for program expenses. In the event that a student chooses to withdraw from a program after being accepted into the program, the student will be responsible for the entire cost of the program and will be billed through his/her student account. For more information please refer to the Cancellation and Refund Policy.

Any unexpended funds in the program account, up to a maximum of $500, may be used for the next year′s program development.

Specific Procedures

  1. No program fees are to be used to purchase alcohol for students, nor should program directors use personal funds for this purpose.
  2. All programs should have an account set up at the Bursar’s office. 
  3. Program directors should make check requests for services (airlines, host institutions, etc.) to the Accounting office.  Checks are to be drawn off individual program accounts.  Do not make charges to the Provost or to the Buckman Center.
  4. Cancellation and Refund Policy: In the event of cancellation of an entire session of a Rhodes program before commencement of the program, all monies paid to Rhodes prior to that time will be refunded. Should an unavoidable event such as epidemic, civil
    unrest, or threat of terrorist activity result in a partial cancellation, a prorated refund of all fees, together with an appropriate evaluation of academic credit, will follow. These actions will terminate any further liability on the part of Rhodes.  In the event that a student chooses to withdraw from the program after being accepted and billed, the student will be responsible for the entire cost of the program.  Refunds will be considered only in cases of serious illness or emergency and the amounts of refunds will be determined individually on the basis of recoverable costs by Rhodes at the time of the withdrawal.
  5. Final budgets should be submitted to the Buckman Center by February 1st.  Faculty and staff members should include in their budgets the monies needed to rent or purchase a cell or satellite phone for the duration of the off-campus program.
  6. Complete expense reports and receipts should be submitted to the Accounting Office as soon as possible after the program ends.  Any remaining advance monies should be returned to the Program’s account.  Faculty and staff leaders will submit a copy of the final expense report with their Program Report to the Buckman Center on or before August 31st.
  7. Faculty compensation is to be built into the program budget.  Compensation is generated by student fees paid for the program.  Maximum stipends for faculty services per program are: $1450 per week gross for 12 students or less; $1760 per week gross for over 12 students.
  8. Requests for stipend monies should be made using the standard PAR form (available from Human Resources). The completed form should be submitted electronically to Human Resources.  The amount to be paid should be submitted as the gross amount, as indicated above.  All PAR monies are subject to applicable tax withholdings.  Please contact Human Resources for assistance with your PAR.

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