End-of-Year Tasks and Planning Information

Note from the Director of Administration and Planning

Dear Chairs,

Planning for the academic year 2025-2026 is underway. 

New Academic Year Planning:

All seminars must submit a New Academic Year Planning Form by June 30, 2025. This form communicates essential information about your seminar. If you need a rapporteur, first try to find one; if you cannot, email the central office at [email protected]. All seminars are required to submit a planning form, even if they will not meet in Faculty House. It is crucial to convey to the office if there is a change of chair, as soon as possible. Please feel free to contact the Director of The University Seminars, Susan Boynton ([email protected]) for advice.

The information contained in the form will be published on the individual seminar web page and in The University Seminars Annual Report: Directory of Seminars, Speakers, & Topics.
 

TRAVEL FUNDING
The deadline for travel funding requests is June 30, 2025. 

Travel funding is not guaranteed. Wait to receive funding approval before inviting guests. 

If a seminar wishes to invite a guest speaker who will require travel funding, the chair must first submit a Travel Fund Request Form. Funding is very limited. Seminars are strongly encouraged to seek funding from other sources and co-sponsorship is highly recommended. In the 2025-2026 year, seminars may not request funding for more than three (3) guest speakers who require travel funds to present at a regular seminar meeting. (If funds remain after the deadline, we will consider additional travel funding requests). The highest priority will be given to seminars which have used the least funding in the past. Feel free to contact Susan Boynton ([email protected]) for guidance on co-sponsorship. The office can provide advice on budget planning, but please make sure to use the resources on the administrative portal. 

Travel budget request deadlines enable the office to work more effectively and purchase discounted fares. Please communicate clearly with invitees about exactly what travel and hospitality costs cover, so as to avoid misunderstandings about what expenditures are approved.

CHAIR ELECTIONS
Each year, elections should be held to select new seminar chairs or reelect current and continuing seminar chairs. Elections can be conducted in-person at a regular seminar meeting or over email by the rapporteur. Chairs for 2025-2026 must be indicated in the New Academic Year Planning Form. Deadline is June 30, 2025.

NEW CHAIRS
All incoming chairs must meet with the director and attend an orientation. Schedule a meeting with Susan Boynton directly through this calendar LINK. For an orientation, contact Pamela Guardia for available dates.

ANNUAL REPORT: DIRECTORY OF SEMINARS, SPEAKERS, & TOPICS
Seminar chairs from academic year 2024-2025 are responsible for reviewing their seminars’ page in the Annual Report and submitting either corrections or confirmations to Summer Hart, even if they are no longer seminar chairs. Look for an email from [email protected] at the end of June. Please respond promptly.

DEADLINES FOR CONFERENCE AND PUBLICATION FUNDING
Please plan ahead. Applications for conference funding and publication subventions are reviewed twice a year. The deadlines are September 15, 2025, and March 1, 2026. Applications are only accepted through Submittable.
 

THE GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING
The meeting will be held over Zoom on Tuesday, October 21st from 4:00-5:30 pm. Attendance by a chair or representative member is required. Rapporteurs may not serve as seminar representatives.

Do not plan seminar meetings on the same day and time. They will not be scheduled on that day.
 

OTHER PROCEDURAL NOTES
Beginning in fall 2025, all seminars will follow the same policy of closed minutes. In addition, all registrants for meetings will be required to check a box agreeing not to record meetings.

SCHOFF LECTURE SERIES - SAVE-THE-DATES

November 10, 17, and 24, lecture at 5:30 pm (note the new start time for the lecture!)

Our annual Schoff Lectures will be given by Professor Brent Edwards. 

Seminar meetings cannot be scheduled on the evenings of the Schoff Lectures or on the following day. Therefore, the following dates are not available for seminar meetings in fall 2025:

November 10, 11; November 17, 18; and November 24, 25.
 

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Communities of Scholars, an Open Seminar Day to commemorate the 80th year of The University Seminars, will be held on Friday, October 17, 1-5 pm in Faculty House:

What is the impact of your seminar on the work of your intellectual community and the  field(s) related to the seminar topic? Participants are invited to take part in wide-ranging conversations in response to this question, in groups representing multiple seminars. 

If you wish to speak in this open seminar day as a representative of your seminar, or to invite another participating member of your seminar to represent it, please write to the Director of The University Seminars, Susan Boynton ([email protected]), by June 15, 2025.

Your seminar will be represented even if its members do not participate in the event itself. Printed materials and a selection of the publications supported by the seminars will be presented, identified by the seminar in which the research was originally discussed (as the books are tagged on The Seminars’ website). 

On behalf of The University Seminars Office, I thank you for your contribution over the past year. The office is available to answer questions or direct you to the information you need through the summer months. Please contact us at [email protected] with any questions.

We wish you a pleasant summer break. 

Pamela Guardia