PROCEDURES FOR PLANNING EXTENDED OUT OF COUNTRY EDUCATIONAL TOURS Update Delete



  1. Requests for approval should be submitted to Academic Administration at least six months prior to the planned trip. Tours not meeting this minimum deadline may not be approved.
  2. The request requires the approval of the following in order:
    1. Dean or Chair
    2. The President’s Cabinet
    3. Fund Raising Committee
    4. Graduate Council
    5. Administrative Council
    6. The Board
  3. Requests, in order to be considered, should include the following information:
    1. Primary purpose of the trip: academic, mission, or other. Explain.
    2. Proposed itinerary with estimated dates
    3. List of trip leaders, faculty and staff participants
    4. Transportation plans
    5. Lodging plans
    6. Budget and fund-raising plans
    7. Emergency contacts (e.g. hospitals, embassies, church offices)
    8. Arrangements for accident and travel insurance through the university’s Office of Risk Management.
    9. Trip cancellation insurance information that will be given to students.
  4. The trip planner must understand the university’s policy regarding financial contributions to the trip. At the time that a trip is approved by the President’s Cabinet, it will also be determined whether that trip qualifies for charitable contributions in accordance with policy. If the trip does not qualify, individuals may contribute towards a participant’s costs, but that gift is a donation to the participant and not to the university, therefore no receipts for tax purposes will be given. Please obtain the “Gift Policy for Mission Trips” from the Advancement Office before collecting any funds.
  5. Participant safety is of paramount importance. Each participant should receive a copy of critical safety information in a convenient and durable format. This should include the following, and the information should be provided to participants, with a copy being placed in the Trip/Tour Sharepoint site at least one week prior to departure.
    1. What to do in case of emergency
    2. Whom to contact in case of emergency
    3. How to contact the person/agency identified in “b.”
    4. Names and local telephone numbers of all faculty, sponsors, and local contacts
    5. How to contact the home campus 24 hours per day
    6. Instructions regarding how to dress, travel, and act in such a way as to not attract anti-US attention.
    7. http://travel.state.gov/studentinfo.html
    Trip/tour planners are responsible to conduct orientation meetings with participants at which policies and procedures for travel, safety, and conduct expectations are clearly discussed. At these meetings, trip leaders will give participants a packet of materials specific to the trip they will be participating in. A template of relevant information is found at www.southern.edu/academics. Trip leaders should adapt this information for their specific trip and furnish a copy to each trip participant. At the conclusion of the orientation sessions and before embarking on the trip, participants will sign the Tour Participant Code of Conduct form which the trip leader will collect and return to Academic Administration.
  6. A copy of this information should be made available to parents upon request. Parents/guardians of student participants who request this information should also be given the name and phone numbers of Southern Adventist University contact persons.
  7. Participants must sign an Assumption of Risk form. State Department information on the destination should be attached to each form so that participants can make a fully informed decision whether or not to participate.
  8. Cancellation of an approved trip shall be determined by Administrative Council upon recommendation of the President’s Cabinet in consultation with the dean or chair sponsoring the tour. Trip leaders shall monitor US State Department and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) websites on a weekly basis in order to know about the potential development of any political or health concerns which could indicate that a trip should be canceled. The decision will be based on at least the following information:
    1. US State Department and/or CDC warnings.
    2. Information from contacts at the destination(s).
    3. Adequate numbers of students participating to ensure that the tour will succeed.
    Three weeks prior to the planned departure date, trip leaders are to present an updated report summarizing any health/political or other safety concerns to Administrative Council for a final decision as to whether the needs to be cancelled. Participants, who choose, between four weeks and one week from the departure date, not to participate in a tour, due to significant safety concerns may have up to 50 percent of their funds refunded by the university, unless the amount is covered by the student’s personal trip cancellation insurance. Participants, who cannot participate because a tour was cancelled by the university, will have their funds refunded unless the trip is an approved mission trip for which tax deductible donations were made. Risk Management trip insurance is usually invoiced to Southern about a week before the trip. After the trip has been billed and before the departure date, there will only be an $800 reimbursed for cancellation of a trip due to death, illness or accidental bodily injury. After the departure date there will not be reimbursement of the cost of the travel policy.
  9. If the cancelled trip is an approved mission trip and if charitable gifts were received for the trip, and if receipts for contributions have been issued, no refunds can be given. This applies even though a donor may have requested consideration for a particular participant. In the event that the trip is cancelled or a participant chooses not to participate, the tax deductible gifts received will be used for future mission endeavors. Donors should be notified of this in advance and should be given a copy of the “Gift Policy for Mission Trips” at the time that the gift is solicited.
  10. If an incident occurs during a trip, including violations of student conduct code, it is the responsibility of the trip leader to manage the crisis in a way that will maximize student safety. It is also his/her responsibility to properly document the incident by having all participants who have direct knowledge of the incident complete incident reports and to gather those reports before returning to campus. The trip leader shall also fill out an incident report form and file all of the completed incident forms on the trip Sharepoint site. He/she shall further report the incident to the appropriate campus administrator(s) within 24 hours. Reportable incidents include but are not limited to situations which have caused the death or serious injury of a trip participant; a trip participant contracting a serious illness which may require trip interruption; incidents in which a participant has been assaulted, seriously injured in an accident, exposed to harmful or potentially lethal bacteria, chemicals etc.; and incidents in which a participant has been charged with committing a crime. The Crisis Management Team is available to the trip leader for consultation at any time and may be freely contacted in order to work towards the best possible outcome for the trip participant(s) involved in the incident.