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Academic Resources Office

Instructionally Related Activties

The goal of the Instructionally Related Activities (IRA) program is to provide student fee funding for out-of-class experiences for students participating in an academic program, discipline, or department where those experiences are integrally related to one of its instructional courses.  Such activities are deemed essential for providing a quality educational program and constitute a vital and/or enhanced instructional experience for students.

To be eligible, activities must: (a) be discipline/departmentally based and sponsored, (b) be integral to course offerings, (c) be intensive, structured activities, (d) require active rather than passive student involvement, (e) engage students in performances, presentations, or competitions that demonstrate skills from participation in intensive class work.

Read more about IRA in the button below titled ‘IRA Guidelines’, and follow the button titled ‘IRA Application’ to apply (The button IRA Application is only active during IRA submission period).

University Expensing Policies and Procedures

All purchase, direct pay, travel, and student assistant documents must conform to PeopleSoft procedures, as well as State procurement procedures.  This includes year-end deadline dates that will be announced in early spring.  Please route all IRA expenditures through the Academic Resources Office, MS ML54.  

Please note that expenditures must adhere to the policies listed below or the documents will be returned to the department.

1. Funds must be spent in accordance with the proposal submitted and approved.  For some awards, there are specific notations on the award allocation spreadsheet, which is sent out in the award notification; funds must be spent in accordance with those specific notations.  Expenditures in excess of the approved IRA allocations or expenditures incurred after the year-end closing deadlines cannot be paid from these accounts.

2. Students and faculty cannot purchase supplies not included in the original proposal and expect to be reimbursed. Should any supply purchases not originally included in the application be required, the applicant must submit to IRA committee for approval 

3. Business Traveler Accounts (BTAs) cannot be used for IRA travel. Any BTAs charged to IRA will be transferred to the colleges’ general fund.

4. Requisitions for materials will be processed through the school or department and must comply with PeopleSoft procedures, using Forms Portfolio requisition forms or CSU P2P.

5. Travel Applications and Claim forms will be processed through the school or department and must comply with university procedures, using Forms Portfolio forms.

6. Purchase of plaques and promotional items such as pens, pencils, cups, etc., must be pre-approved by the IRA Advisory Board and the Director of Procurement Services.

7. IRA funds cannot be spent on cash prizes, gifts, or awards.

8. IRA funds cannot be spent on durable goods. Durable goods are defined as equipment or tools that can continue to be used beyond the original intent. Purchases must be used for immediate consumption during the course of the proposed event. If you have questions about purchase eligibility, please contact the IRA Advisory Committee for clarification.

9. Promotional clothing/ apparel will not be funded.

10. Classroom expenditures are not funded through IRA; those expenditures should be paid from departments operating expenditures or miscellaneous course fees if allowed.  For example, IRA funds cannot be used in place of class miscellaneous course fees for various class projects. 

11. IRA funds cannot be used to pay for food or meals unless the cost is included as part of an off-campus conference registration/fees, or the meal costs are the per diem for a guest speaker or performer.  Per Diem or meals relating to student travel cannot be paid using IRA funds.

12. Any funds remaining unspent at fiscal year-end will be returned to the IRA fee account.  Unspent allocations for projects do not carry over to the next fiscal year.

13. IRA funds are for student projects. Faculty and/ or staff travel and expenses are not permitted. Students must be currently enrolled to receive and utilize IRA funds. Graduation and/or disenrollment from the university disqualify a student from receiving funds. Incoming freshmen and/or transfer students can receive project funds once they have begun their course work.

Honorariums

** Please note an update to honorariums: Awardees planning to offer honoraria over $2,000 (including travel expenses) must obtain written approval from the Dean prior to inviting the guest speaker. Portions of honoraria intended to offset travel costs for speakers should be justified and normally should not exceed $1,000. Speakers offered non-travel related honoraria above $1,000 are expected to be nationally or internationally respected leaders in their fields, or to be providing a level of services that justifies the amount (for example, leading a multi-day workshop).**

 

Voyager Cards 

** Please note, Voyager Cards are not allowed to be charged to IRA chartstrings. If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to ARO. 

 

IRA Frequently Asked Questions

The committee will begin meeting approximately 2 weeks after the published IRA Application deadline. 

Recommendations are sent by the IRA Advisory Board to the University President approximately 5 weeks after the deadline, at which point the President will make any final decisions and approve the recommendations. 

Award letters are sent via email by the Academic Resources Office to Applicant,  Dean, Department Chair, and/or Activity Advisor that are listed on the original IRA application.

Academic Resources Office is in charge of all IRA fund expensing.  Please refer back to the “IRA University Expensing Policies and Procedures” document to see how to access/use the funds.  Recipients of IRA funds will work directly with their school or department to process necessary paperwork in order to use the funds.

The IRA Advisory Board is looking to fund applications that actively incorporate students into the activity, are relevant to an academic field and enhance the student’s academic experience, and are not covering what are perceived to be basic department costs. Also, the IRA Advisory Board appreciates any attempt by the applicant to reduce expenses and make the activity available to as many students as possible.

The committee can best evaluate applications that accurately define how many students are actively involved in the activity, have precise and concise answers to the questions asked, have all relevant information confirming expense estimations attached (i.e., conference registration information, quotes from vendors, etc.), and can clearly define the student’s role in the activity.

The spring deadline is for the primary cycle for the upcoming fiscal year. The majority of all IRA funds are awarded in this cycle. These awards are available beginning July 1st of the upcoming fiscal year and must be expended by June 30th of the same fiscal year.

The fall deadline, or “late application” deadline, is for projects that did not make the primary spring cycle for various reasons.  These late projects are funded from IRA project balances remaining from the previous fiscal year. Typically the funds available will only be a small portion of the overall IRA awards for the fiscal year. These awards must also be used by June 30th of the fiscal year awarded.  

Travel that is completed prior to June 30th of a fiscal year must be funded during that fiscal year. However, if your travel is completed after July 1st (started in June but completed in July), those projects can be funded from the next fiscal year. The problem you will have is that we normally issue the spring cycle awards in mid-May which might be too late for you to begin planning June/July travel.  The best practice is to request summer funding in the prior fiscal year (plan way ahead if possible). 

We encourage that you still apply and state these unique circumstances on the application or through an attachment. As you receive the information needed, please send it as soon as possible to the ASI President.  

All activities requested should be put into one application. For example, if a group is requesting travel to several competitions, all competitions should be listed in the one application. Please make sure that you explicitly specify how many different events you will be participating in. 

No, IRA funds will not cover any expenses that faculty or staff incurs. IRA is limited to programs or expenses that will directly benefit and involve students. 

The IRA Advisory Board does its best to prioritize each project and award funds as fairly as possible. The IRA fund is derived from student fees and as enrollment may vary, revenue can also vary. In addition, the number and amount of requests have historically increased each year. There is no guarantee that a particular project will receive the same funds from year-to-year. Therefore, IRA funds should be treated as one-time allocations and not base funds. For more information on these details, please contact the ASI President by calling (559) 278-2656. 

IRA funds will not pay per diem expenses for students. However, if conference or event registration fees include meals, IRA funding can be allocated to those expenses. 

There are two options for utilizing IRA funds for student travel purposes before the trip takes place:

1. The department can request an advance for student travel when submitting the Travel Application form. They will need to ensure to provide sufficient information regarding the amount requested as it relates to the hotel stay, transporation costs, and/or registration fees. The advance for student travel will need to be submitted at least three weeks before the travel will be taking place and the funds will be made available no sooner than two weeks before the travel takes place.

2. The department can work with Travel Shoppe to have travel expenses such as transporation and hotel costs booked for student. Travel Shoppe will provide an invoice for the trip which will need to be processed through a Direct Pay.

Contact Name: Hilda Morrison
Phone: (559) 447-5767

Please contact Associated Students, Inc. at (559) 278-2656 or ASI President via email at asi-president@csufresno.edu

Please contact Academic Resources Office at aro@mail.fresnostate.edu.