The cost of travel

As my college and I go through the experience of telecommuting, we learn what works and what doesn’t. After my first trip back to campus, I submitted my request for travel reimbursement, about $280. The following week, the President’s office issued a statement saying they were going to pull the telecommuting policy from the Board of Trustee’s agenda because the college needed to look at the impact of travel on the policy- which had no stipulations or guidelines.

The issue is this: telecommuters are not on campus. The institution has decided to allow this person to work at a location, be it their home or an office somewhere else. In theory, a person who lives very close to the college could telecommuter due to illness or some other event making it unsafe or unwise to come on to campus.

I think the important question should be asked: Why should someone be called back to campus, and is this something that can be done by some other means? I have always been a fan of video conferencing- it’s the Star Trek fan in me. If colleges were a little more creative in planning their meetings, days of travel could be avoided, as well as thousands of dollars each year. When I first started in the community college system, I noticed there were a lot of conferences, seminars, and symposiums. These of course translate to lots of travel. I guess there is, and continues to be a conference culture in the academic world. While I understand the need to physically network with peers, I myself have benefited from the hallway “So what were you describing in the meeting?” conversation, I think a large majority of the one-sided meetings could be delivered in some other way.

We will never get away from the physical meeting, nor will we replace the need. However, if colleges move to distribute the workforce away from the institution, they must be ready to think about the implications of the ad-hoc meeting.