Embedded Files
Planning your speaker’s visit:
Once you’ve invited someone to speak at your colloquium, please fill out the colloquium speaker form.
On the speaker form, please indicate which night you need that the colloquium will be funding and the name of the hotel if you have a preference. Please note that the department is only able to cover 1 night of hotel. Speakers will need to pay out of pocket for additional nights.
Some commonly used hotels are Hotel Veritas, Porter Square Hotel, Hotel 1868, Irving House, the Sheraton Commander, and the Charles Hotel. Porter Square Hotel and Hotel 1868 have been reliable and relatively inexpensive compared to other options.
If your speaker needs valet parking, please email Stephanie to let her know.
If your speaker would like us to book their travel, please indicate their departure location, arrival and departure dates, and preferred mode of travel (plane, train, bus). (Example: If Speaker A wants to book the Acela for an early afternoon arrival on Thursday and a morning departure on Friday, you can specify the times or even the trains that they prefer. We will try to book the requested trains as long as they’re within reasonable financial limits.)
Stephanie will be in touch with the speaker and colloquium coordinators with reservation details!
If your speaker is booking their own travel, please ask them to submit their receipts and a Buy2Pay non-employee reimbursement form to Stephanie.
What is a reimbursable expense?
Hiring a car service is not a reimbursable expense unless the speaker has a documented medical condition.
If flying domestically, first-class or business-class travel is not permitted. Economy plus or preferred economy seating is, however, reimbursable.
If traveling by train, Acela is permitted.
Ubers/lyfts/taxis are permitted for airport/train station to/from Harvard and to/from the speaker’s home or office (with receipt[s]).
We will reimburse for mileage, parking, and tolls if the speaker chooses to drive. If claiming by mileage, the speaker may not ask for gas reimbursement, as that is included in the mileage reimbursement rate.
Just because an expense is reimbursable does not mean you have to promise to reimburse all reimbursable expenses. We suggest having a cap on the reimbursement total (e.g., “We will pay for your airfare and one night of hotel. We can reimburse up to $x.00 for ground transportation.” Or “We can reimburse up to $600.00 total for all travel expenses.”)
If your colloquium wants to have dinner following an event, fill out the colloquium dinner form after you have called the restaurant and made a reservation. Please include the restaurant’s phone number on the form. After you’ve submitted the form and made a reservation, Stephanie will call the restaurant with the department card number.
Please submit the dinner form at least 3 business days in advance of the dinner to ensure that you’ll be able to get a reservation with the required number of guests.
If you have a group of less than 5 attending the dinner, we will need to know the names of all guests. If this applies to you, please list the names on the colloquia dinner form.
New spending limits for AY 2025-26: $40/person/dinner (including drinks and gratuity) and limit groups to 5 people total. If you have a special reason to need more people at the dinner, please email Stephanie and Sol to explain the justification for the exception.
If you request to have Stephanie use the department card for dinner, the expense will still be taken from your colloquium funds, but you will not have to submit a reimbursement request.
It is vital that you get the itemized receipt from the dinner, not the final tip/total receipt. You should get the itemized receipt to Stephanie or Sol within 3 business days after the meal. Repeat late submission of receipts will result in losing access to the Departmental corporate card for colloquium dinners.
Honoraria
On the colloquia speaker form, please indicate the honorarium amount (max amount: $300/speaker). After the speaker’s visit has taken place, Sol will process the honorarium.
If the speaker is not already registered in Buy2Pay, after your speaker form is submitted, Stephanie will reach out to the speaker to request that they register on the platform to have their reimbursements and honoraria processed.
Reimbursements
If you order a catering delivery or purchase snacks for an event, please make sure that the restaurant/store did not charge you tax, since we are a tax exempt organization. Our tax exempt code is 10798176. Please make sure to keep the itemized receipt (which lists all items) and write in the tip amount (if applicable).
Graduate Colloquia Website
Please keep the graduate colloquia website updated with colloquia event information. This includes the description, date, time, and location of the event. Stephanie will check the website Thursday morning for event info to put in The Source.
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