Travel support


Please determine your travel route and funding source ASAP once you know you are coming!

Please coordinate with your school to see if your home institution can cover your travel costs. Below is a template that you are welcome to use when contacting your Department Chair or Undergraduate Advisor for funding.

If your university is not able to pay for your travel expenses, CUWiP@UCLA will reimburse the cost of travel after the conference. If your university is not able to pay for your travel expenses, we require that you:

  • Contact the CUWiP@UCLA travel coordinator as soon as possible after Nov. 10th (notification of acceptance to CUWiP@UCLA) with an estimate of your travel costs, using the most economical means of transportation.
  • Confirm that your school is not able to pay for travel by submitting to the CUWiP@UCLA travel coordinator a letter from your department (written by your Department Chair, Undergraduate Advisor, etc.).

If your travel cost is not covered by your department, we ask that you find the most economical means of transportation to and from the conference.

Driving:

  • Carpooling is strongly encouraged as it is usually the most economical option. Students should estimate the costs of air and of car, taking into account the efficiencies of carpooling and choose the least expensive option. If the choice is questionable, students should contact the CUWiP@UCLA travel coordinator and provide paperwork showing how the transportation decision was made. UCLA's mileage reimbursement rate is $0.54 per mile. Receipts are required for tolls and parking charges, if applicable.

Flights:

  • Unless a student's home department is fully covering airfare, students must receive approval from the CUWiP@UCLA Organizing Committee for airfare purchases. Requests for airfare reimbursement (even partial) may be denied if the student does not receive prior approval.
  • Only coach/economy class will be reimbursed. The CUWiP@UCLA Organizing Committee will not cover upgrades (e.g., the purchase of extra legroom), early boarding, flight insurance, or the cost of a booking agent.
  • The CUWiP@UCLA Organizing Committee expects all flights to be purchased no later than one month before the conference. If a student delays the approval process or waits to purchase a flight after approval has been given resulting in a higher expense, she/he may be denied full reimbursement of the airfare purchase. Please contact the CUWiP@UCLA travel coordinator to check if a flight purchase is still possible.
  • Frequent flyer mileage cannot be used in lieu of a ticket wherein the traveler expects to receive reimbursement for a comparably priced ticket although she/he has used mileage.
  • Options for transportation from the airport: You can use Uber, Lyft, Super Shuttle or the FlyAway Bus when traveling from LAX to UCLA. If using Uber/Lyft you must meet drivers on the departures (upper) level at the posted "Ride Service pickup" sign.

Parking:

  • CUWiP@UCLA will have reserved parking near the conference center. See here for details. The cost of parking will be reimbursed after the conference.


If you need help asking your Dept for funding...

We ask that your home institution pay for student travel to and from CUWiP@UCLA if possible. Below is a template that you are welcome to use when contacting your Department Chair or Undergraduate Advisor for funding. You will have most success with requesting funds if you can organize yourself with others from your department or school who are also attending CUWiP@UCLA.

There is also a $45 registration fee that the participant normally pays to minimize the percentage of student no-shows and provide a commitment to APS that you really are going to attend! Sometimes departments are able to cover these registration costs, so we have included a request for registration fee funds in this template. Please adapt as necessary.

To Whom it May Concern,

The Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) is a series of regional conferences organized by the American Physical Society that take place at sites across the United States and Canada. The goal of CUWiP is to provide information about graduate school and careers available with an undergraduate degree in physics, as well as facilitate professional skills development and networking opportunities. This year the Western regional conference will be held at UCLA in January 2017.

The cost of food, lodging, and conference proceedings is covered by CUWiP@UCLA. However, the conference requests that the home department of attendees cover travel costs. In addition, there is a $45 registration fee that either the student attendee or home institution covers. The purpose of this registration fee is to provide a commitment for attendee arrival and participation, to minimize the probability of no-shows and wasted resources.

The funds we are requesting depend on the total number of students attending the conference from our institution, which we estimate to be between [insert number of student estimate]. Assuming travel costs of $[insert dollar estimate] per student, we ask the Department to fund a travel grant of $[insert total cost estimate]. In addition, registration fees amount to $[total registration costs]. We therefore ask the department to fund a total grant of $[total travel costs + total registration costs]. The final cost will be determined when the number of students attending from our university is known.

Students will be notified of their acceptance to CUWiP@UCLA on November 9th. The deadline to register for CUWiP@UCLA is November 20th. If at all possible, please let us know your decision before this date.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

[insert your name here, along with any other students from your department who are applying to CUWiP@UCLA]