More than 50 members of the Syracuse University community attended an information session on Wednesday to express their concerns with the university’s controversial new travel and entertainment policy.

The policy, which went into effect Sept 1. and is believed by the university to potentially save $2 million annually, names BTI The Travel Consultants as SU’s official travel management company. It also requires faculty, staff and students to book “university-funded, sponsored research or grant-funded travel” through the 24/7 online booking portal Concur, according to an SU News release.

The goal of the Concur system is to increase the efficiency of the travel process, said Douglas Freeman, director of purchasing and real estate and initiative team manager at SU, at the session.

Freeman said Concur enables users to book travel arrangements such as airfare, hotels and car rentals all in one place. At forums last fall, he added, members of the SU community complained they were “spending too much time shopping around” when making travel arrangements.

But about 40 percent of SU faculty have signed a petition opposing the policy, with some grievances against the efficiency of the Concur system.

These grievances include the views that Concur will not necessarily save money for faculty traveling for research purposes, that the policy is inefficient in regard to time-consuming paperwork and that the use of Concur will make it difficult to combine work travel and family travel.

The main issues addressed at the information session related to purchasing flights through Concur when there are cheaper flights available on other platforms, multi-person booking and the flexibility of the travel policy.

Student Association President Aysha Seedat and a few other session attendees questioned why SU community members should book flights through Concur when there are cheaper options elsewhere.

Freeman said traveling SU faculty, staff and students are actually able to purchase lower cost airfare through other portals with documentation, such as a screenshot, as long as the flight arrangements shown on Concur line up with the arrangements of the flight through the different platform.

Sheri Tyler, a BTI representative, said Concur users have pointed out lower fares on other platforms, but added that BTI has found people need more direction using Concur in order to find those cheaper arrangements.

Another reason people may be unable to find those cheap flights is because they search for flights within a constrained time range, such as an eight-hour range, rather than a 24-hour range. The longer time range might present cheaper flights, said Jen DeFuria, another BTI representative.

Several attendees questioned why Concur does not permit users to book more than one ticket at a time. Freeman said the university is working with Concur to modify a feature that would allow a “clone your trip” feature to do multi-booking.

Although users cannot book multi-person flights themselves, the BTI representatives said agents can book more than one person for the traveler.

Regarding the flexibility of the policy, several faculty members wondered how easily they could book other travel arrangements in disregard of the policy’s 21-day advance notice. Freeman said the policy is encouraged, but is not a “deal stopper,” and added that the reason for the 21-day advance is that research showed flights booked at least 21 days in advance tended to be cheaper.

There will be a training session for the Concur system on Dec. 16 in 010 Crouse-Hinds Hall from 10 to 11:30 a.m., Freeman said. The session will teach attendees about the nuances of the Concur system and show them how to book travel and use shortcuts on the portal.

Freeman added that training sessions will continue on a monthly basis through the end of June.

Published on December 9, 2015 at 11:48 pm

Contact Alexa: atorrens@syr.edu