Department Information

Account Information Overview

Every department in good standing with the Arts & Sciences GSO with a graduate program gets a yearly allocation for the graduate students to utilize however they see fit. The funds come from the Student Activity Fees that all graduates are required to pay. Each department is allocated a specific amount based on its graduate student enrollment figures. Allocations are made on a yearly basis in the fall semester. Many departments choose to hold graduate meetings to relay information from the A&S GSO meetings to the rest of the grads and to discuss the spending of their funds.

Money is often used to purchase food for grad meetings, fund a happy hour/coffee hour, purchase niceties for the TA offices/labs (furniture, maps, etc.), or to hold graduate picnics. If there are subsets within your department, the funds may be divided between them. This is at the discretion of the department’s graduate student body and must be maintained by the department. The A&S GSO only keeps records of each department’s total balance.

Obtaining Your Department’s GSO Account Balance

To request a copy of your department’s account information, including the available balance of your account, please contact the Administrative Assistant.

Spending Department GSO Money

Purchase Requests

To use funding, we ask that you first place a purchase request with our Administrative Assistant (new form, coming soon! Please contact us for now at asgso@pitt.edu). We ask for this form to ensure that all rules and regulations of the Student Organization Resource Center (SORC). SORC determines how all student
This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Filing for reimbursement within 30 days of receipt date; receipt including last four digits of credit card or a bank statement
  • A sign-in sheet will be included for all food purchases
  • Contracts (renting venues, hiring bartenders, etc.) are completed over 21 days in advance of the event with the SORC office
  • For off campus events only, alcohol approval forms are completed in advance as well as insurance liability reported
  • Purchases do not include giftcards unless to the University Bookstore and approved by SORC in advance

We would like to remind all representatives that purchases may be made directly in the SORC office using University cards to avoid the need for reimbursements. Please contact us to set up a meeting in advance of your event to make an appointment.

Reimbursements

Most department spending is done by reimbursement. Please follow the instructions on the reimbursement form carefully. You must submit original, itemized receipts to be reimbursed. Once the Administrative Assistant has received the form, reimbursement usually takes 4 to 6 weeks though our organization has no control over reimbursement returns after they are approved in our office.

Supplemental Department Funding Request

Supplemental Department Funding Request

The supplemental department funds are open to the entire constituency of the departmental GSO, adhere to all existing rules for use of departmental GSO funds, and do not exceed the funding limits stated below:

$100: Anthropology, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, English, Mathematics, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology $150: All other A&S departments

Departmental GSOs may opt to apply to receive their entire funding limit at once, or to apply for funds in several smaller increments. Departmental GSOs interested in applying for larger sums than those listed above may present their spending plans to the Assembly Board members for approval.

Guidelines for Completing a Request

    • Until further notice, applications may only be submitted in full in the form of single .PDF file
    • If you’re not typing your allocation, please print neatly and legibly. Illegible handwriting may prevent successful processing of your payment.
    • You MUST state whether you are an employee of the University. TAs and TFs are employees. If you get regular paychecks from the University, you are an employee. If you are not sure, please check with your department administrator or other appropriate individual.
    • Whether the address you prefer to have the check mailed to is a campus address or home address, please provide the FULL mailing address.
    • You may not leave any section of the form incomplete. If there is missing or incomplete information, it will NOT be processed.
    • Receipts must be scanned or as clear images on a neutral background.
    • Again, all materials must be submitted as a single .PDF file containing the Reimbursement Request Form (updated version to follow! Please contact us for now), a copy of event attendance, and scans of original ITEMIZED receipts.

Recording Attendance At Events

Part of the reimbursement process requires that you keep track of the people who attended the event. The easiest way is to have people sign-in (.pdf) but you may also create a list after-the-fact if necessary.

Who may receive reimbursements/disbursements?

Each person who spent money for an event must be reimbursed separately, and so must file a separate reimbursement request but only one list of people attending the event needs to be submitted.

If you know in advance that you will need to spend a large sum of money or if you want to spend money within the University please contact the Administrative Assistant to make arrangements.

Spending Authorization

One of the department’s expense signatories must approve, in writing or by e-mail, all reimbursement requests or other payments from the department accounts. If a department is not currently in good standing with the A&S GSO then it is not eligible to spend money. Contact the Administrative Assistant for details.