Since 9/11 the University and the International Education and Programs (IEP) have developed a series of policies and guidelines that pertain to all academic off-campus programs. As a result, faculty interested in conducting academic class field trips, extended domestic and foreign travel field trips, and quarterly or year-long off-campus programs, must follow the University protocol.

The following provides a brief summary of the guidelines faculty are required to follow when conducting field trips. We recommend that you review the Field Trip Guidelines and Field Trip Procedures available at http://www.afd.calpoly.edu/risk/ in the early stages of planning a class field trip in addition to the information we have given here.

Please contact Alissa in the Architecture Department at X62930 if you have any questions or need assistance about field trip guidelines.

Short Field Trips

Faculty members planning a field trip of two days or less for their class are required to complete the Travel Request (1A) form with an attached itinerary. Regardless of the distance, faculty must have the students complete the Field Activities Notification Form.doc for all off-campus field trips. If the field trip involves abnormal risks (i.e. visiting a construction site) faculty must have their students complete the University Activity Release Agreement.doc.

If several similar required field trips are planed throughout the quarter, each trip itinerary may be listed on a single Field Activities Notification Form that students can sign once, rather than filling out the form for each individual short field trip. All forms must be collected by the faculty member/trip leader and submitted to the department five business days before the departure date.

Extended Domestic & Foreign Travel Field Trips

There are unique requirements for extended field trips (trips over two days) and all field trips that involve foreign travel. Common requirements for all extended field trips are:

NOTE: Faculty who travel with students and do not follow the procedures will be personally liable and not covered by the CSU or Cal Poly in the event of an accident or emergency.

Extended Domestic Field Trips

Faculty planning to conduct an extended field trip, defined as 2 or more days and/or including extensive logistics, must complete the Travel Request (1A) form and provide a detailed itinerary with emergency contact information for each trip location.

All forms must be submitted by the faculty member/trip leader to the department at least 10 business days before the departure date.

Foreign Travel Field Trips

Faculty planning a foreign travel field trip must submit to the department a trip proposal that includes a timeline, itinerary and budget. The budget must provide an estimate of student expenses including any fees that the student will be assessed. Fees must include the foreign travel assistance insurance (medical, personal and travel assistance) the department is required to purchase for the group from Cal Poly. The faculty member/trip leader must submit the trip proposal to the department a minimum of 10 weeks prior to trip departure.

Faculty planning to conduct an foreign field trip must complete the Travel Request (1A) form, and send a memo to International Education and Programs verifying that the student participants have signed the three required risk management documents provided above. The memo must include the name of the student participants, their identification number, Cal Poly email alias, emergency contact information, and dates, destinations, and overseas contact information for all field trip destinations. This information will be logged with the Cal Poly Police Department for the duration of the trip. A copy of the memo must be provided to the Architecture Department. This link provides a Draft Field Trip Memo (.doc).

Faculty must contact International Education and Programs (IEP- X61477) to review emergency plans while overseas and procedures for guiding students while abroad.

All forms must be submitted by the faculty member/trip leader to the department at least one month prior to the departure date.