Checking the Status of Your Funding Request
- Log onto OrgCentral at psu.campuslabs.com/engage.
- Click on your profile picture in the top right corner of the page, and select “Submission” from the pop-out menu.
- Click on the “Budgeting” tab under the “My Submissions” heading.
- Choose the funding request whose status you’d like to check.
- In the “Request History” section of the request, you can review where your funding request currently is in our review process, the history of its movement through our workflow, and any comments that you or a reviewer might have left on the budget.
All UPAC requests for program funding, U.S. travel funding, international travel funding, media funding, and equipment funding go through the following review procedure:
1. Budget Received, Awaiting Preliminary Review
Thank you so much for submitting your UPAC funding request! One of our student employees or staff members will make an internal note of your request, ensure that you’ve met your appropriate submission deadline, and check to make sure that all necessary pieces of supporting information are attached.
2. Preliminary Review
Our Chair will take an initial look at your funding request and determine how your request should be reviewed—if it should be reviewed by one of our allocating Sub-Committees or if your request can be fast-tracked.
- Committee Review—If the Chair has any questions about your funding request or if it does not meet all necessary requirements to be reviewed as a fast-track review, your funding request will be reviewed by one of our four allocating Sub-Committees.
- Fast-track—A fast-tracked funding request is one which the Chair allocates full funding based on UPAC policy. Other guidelines dictating which funding requests can be fast-tracked can be found in Section 3.1.4. of the UPAC Requestor Handbook.
3. Committee Review
Any budgets to be reviewed by an allocating Sub-Committee will be placed in this Committee Review step. UPAC funds on a first-come, first-served basis so funding requests can wait in this step for a few weeks before our Student Contact Team Sub-Chair is ready to schedule your budget for a review with one of our allocating Sub-Committees.
Once your request is up next in line to be reviewed, you’ll receive an email from upac@psu.edu asking you to RSVP to attend a meeting with one of our allocating Sub-Committees.
On the night that your funding request is reviewed, you’ll first sit down with one of our Student Contact Team members to discuss your budget, have any questions answered, and make sure that you’re comfortable and ready to talk to an allocating Sub-Committee. You’ll spend a few minutes talking to a Sub-Committee made up of about five students as well as a Sub-Committee Chair and Advisor who lead the discussion. For more information on general allocation reviews, you can check out Section 1.3.1. in the UPAC Requestor Handbook.
4. Fast-Track Review
Any budgets to be reviewed by our chair will be placed into the Fast-Track Review step. In this step, your funding request will not need to go to review by a sub-committee. The chair will be able to allocate funding according to Handbook Policy. If there are any additional questions, a member of UPAC will reach out for clarification.
5. Allocation Pending
Once a decision has been made on how much money to allocate towards your funding request, it will be moved to Allocation Pending until a UPAC Leadership Team member can record that decision and create an allocation letter to send out to you. All allocations are made strictly based on policies in the UPAC Requestor Handbook, which can be found on this website. Your allocation letter will include the amount allocated toward your request as well as rationale explaining the Committee’s decision.
6. UPAC Funding Approval
The UPAC Chair and UPAC advisors will review your funding request, as well as the allocation decision made on it. Importantly, they will also checks the allocation decision to ensure that it is in line with all University, Student Fee Board, and UPAC policies and rules. A UPAC Advisor will email the contact person with the allocation letter including the amount allocated toward your request as well as the rationale for each funding decision. Your request on OrgCentral will also be approved, prompting an email message to the submitter saying that your budget has been approved.