B. Travel Active scholarly life involves a certain amount of travel for purposes such as attending scholarly meetings, visiting other academic institutions, or conducting research. Faculty members are responsible for ensuring that their professional travel does not conflict in a major way with their other duties at the university, including teaching, advising students, and committee work. In particular, faculty members are responsible for finding qualified instructors for their classes or scheduling make-up classes. When travel does produce significant conflicts, in particular when more than two successive classes will be missed, faculty members should resolve these conflicts with their department chairs prior to traveling. There are many potential funding sources for travel expenses.
Funds are sometimes available at the department or school level.
Finally, many faculty members have access to external research funding that can cover travel expenses. C. Teaching and Service Awards Rice has always valued and encouraged excellent teaching. Since 1966, it has recognized the best of its teachers with a variety of prizes and awards. All members of the classes that graduated two and five years ago are invited to vote for teachers who most impressed them with the substance of their courses and with the organization and enthusiasm of their teaching. Like the Brown prize and awards, the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management Award for Excellence in Teaching is also determined by the votes of those alumni who graduated two and five years ago.