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Policies & Procedures

Astronomy & Astrophysics' administrative policies and procedures provide instructions for support requests concerning: 

Travel Planning

Please submit a Pre-Travel Request form to your assigned Fiscal Assistant before your trip and a detailed Travel Expense report along with your receipts after your trip to ensure timely and accurate trip reimbursement. Be sure to have your PI pre-approval and form signatures.

Reimbursements

Travel and procurement expenses are posted and processed through the Concur System. All travel and procurements must have an associated receipt. 

Purchasing can happen either through a Procurement card (Express Card) or for travel (T&E Card). Other changes are also possible through the UC San Diego Oracle system.

Please submit all reimbursements to your assigned Fiscal Assistant.

Research & Grant Proposal Requests

All inquiries about research administration and proposals should be sent to astroRA@ucsd.edu.

Pre-Award: 

Please be sure to include a filled out proposal starter with any request, and feel free to share any additional information you think is good to know about the funding opportunity. Please name the file you send "Proposal Starter_[Project nickname]_[PI Name]" so that we have some uniformity.  For example: Proposal Starter_NASA-ADAP-2024_LastName

OCGA Information: 

In addition, please familiarize yourselves with UCSD's OCGA submission timeline for proposals. Please make a note that OCGA's offices are open only Monday - Friday until 4:30pm and they submit proposals on a first come first serve basis.

Space Requests & Policy

The assignment of office and laboratory space is based upon justified need and reasonable use, and is reviewed by the A&A Space Committee. Please submit space requests directly to the Chief Administrator.

All general office and desk space for A&A members is defined by academic appointment.The Space Committee reviews all major requests for additional space. The Space Committte will submit their recommendation to the Chair for final decision. A letter describing the review process and its conclusions will be sent to the A&A member.

Space Requests

At any point any member of A&A can request to be relocated to a different office space. The request needs to include well-documented justification for the move for the space committee to review.

  • A&A faculty and research members may request additional space for laboratory or research activities. The request must include well-justified reasoning for either moving or additional space or its use in SERF. The policy allows each case to be treated individually and weighs the following factors: (a) availability of space, (b) scholarly activity and funding, (c) ongoing contributions to the welfare of the department (such as committee service or teaching), and (d) past service to the department. If by these criteria, laboratory or additional space is judged by the Director, with the advice of the Space Committee, to be deemed necessary space will be made available. Requests for additional space need to be in made as far in advance as possible.
  • The space committee will review the entire use of A&A space annually. If the space committee determines that space is being highly underutilized, A&A members may be asked to consolidate or vacate space or to occupy alternative quarters in order to make room for newly hired faculty or researchers, to consolidate laboratories with common interests, or to allow growth of the research programs of young faculty. Requests to consolidate or vacate space will be made as far in advance as possible, and whenever possible will coincide with the end of an appointment or the end of a sponsored agreement or both. Once a space committee request is approved by the Chair, a schedule associated with the subject of the request will be approved in the next 4 weeks, and then that schedule will be monitored by the space committee.

Key Request & Policy

A&A faculty, research members, graduate and undergraduate students can be issued keys for both office and laboratory space. This key policy is in place to safeguard and secure the assets of A&A including computers, equipment, supplies, etc. Keys will be issued to authorized personnel who are responsible to conduct research activities within the assigned space. Personnel should not loan keys to others nor should keys be duplicated. Doors must be locked upon leaving the area to maintain security.

Please email Anais Davalos for a key request with your specified PI.

Key Policy

  1. The key request must be completed by the employee and signed by both the employee and their supervisor. A $15.00 key deposit will be collected and keys issued for office and laboratory space.

  2. Building keys will not be issued since the Omnilock system is in place on the outside doors. The lock code can be provided by the MSO with a four digit key code to access the building after hours.

  3. A $15.00 fee will be charged for all lost or misplaced keys and a new key will be issued.

  4. When an employee separates from Astronomy and Astrophysics, all assigned keys must be returned. If a person transfers to another position within the University and possesses assigned keys that are no longer needed in the performance of their duties, these keys must be returned to the business office within five days. The key deposit will be reimbursed to the employee when keys have been returned. If an employee departs CASS and fails to return their keys then their deposit will be forfeited.

 

AI Policy

Astronomy and Astrophysics Department Generative AI (GenAI) Policy Fall 2024

Following campus AI and Academic Integrity guidelines (see also Generative AI and Using ChatGPT), each instructor/advisor will set GenAI policies for their classes and include a policy in their course syllabi, and for their research group, and will discuss expectations for GenAI usage for classwork and research with students and all research group members. For undergraduate student honors theses, graduate student qualifying exam reports, and PhD theses submitted to the department, GenAI tools can at most be used for light editing and, if so, must be cited appropriately following the AAS guidelines.

In general, the responsibility for any work product, including writing and coding, rests with the student or research group member. Beyond properly citing the usage of these tools, students and department members who use GenAI should always critically assess and reflect on its contribution to their work (see helpful resources below).

Some external AI-related academic integrity resources:

Departmental Logos

The Department logos for major programmatic activities should use the official campus A&A logo. 

Download here: digital media A&A logo

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