Reimbursement Issues for Junior People

I would like to call attention to a problem that may not be salient to university administrators or senior philosophers: Junior philosophers tend to be rather poor and in debt. They may have been paying for tuition and living expenses for five years or more (sometimes they have also been paying for kids in addition to that). Why should that concern you? Because (to mention just one issue) every so often you invite a junior philosopher to give a talk at a department colloquium or a conference. That's really great. Keep doing that. However, you may want to reconsider the whole reimbursement business. When I am asked to give an invited talk, and you promise to reimburse me, that's super-nice of you. If the reimbursement doesn't arrive right away (or occasionally never arrives), my kid won't starve. But I am not a junior person.

Junior people are just starting out. Even if they recently started receiving a decent salary, they don't usually have a huge savings account or a credit card with a huge credit limit and low interest. Furthermore, they may have no or very meager research accounts. For these reasons, the reimbursement policy at most universities can be a huge issue for junior people. They cannot afford to pay up front for the plane ticket that you kindly offer to reimburse. Or if they can, they cannot afford to wait several months for the reimbursement. So, please keep that in mind next time you invite a junior person to present at a conference or to give a department talk that is non-local. Offer to pay for their plane ticket up front. Or if that's not possible because of university policies, reimburse them quickly. If you wait five months to reimburse them, you ought to reimburse the interest that the expense has accumulated on their credit card as well.

And now that we are talking about the financial issues of junior people, remember that there are junior people with kids. Sometimes they have to bring their kids to your conference or colloquium. That's an extra expense. Use the money you have to reimburse the extra cost. If you think you don't have enough money to cover this, ask senior people to use their research funds to cover their travel expenses. It's somewhat ironic that we offer senior people huge reimbursements and very often ask junior people to pay out of pocket for their trips. Please reconsider how you are distributing your conference and colloquium grants and allowances in the future.