Emergent issues can be mild, moderate or severe. Often an emergent issue that starts out mild or moderate can worsen if it repeats itself day after day. A couple of good practices in all risk management, after attending to life-threatening health issues, are:
- Identifying who is affected as quickly as possible.
- Communicating to the Study Abroad Emergency Team using your emergency card or contact information provided in the shared folder for your program and allowing them to pull together the team that can help you address your issues as you continue leading the program.
- Documenting in the moment, you can keep written notes in any word processing format you feel comfortable with and submit what you have documented using the simple online form and/or email them to ldobson@unca.edu.
Please Note: Electronic form and email provide a great way to quickly and officially share volumes of information, and do great documentation, but make sure to also message text/WhatApp or call to let the emergency team know you’re submitting time-sensitive information. After hours we won’t check our email unless we know there is an emergent situation to address, and we want to provide assistance in a time-sensitive manner.
If it becomes necessary to remove a student from the program (see handbook for guidelines of qualifications to remove a student), please complete the Removal from Study Abroad Program form.
Tracking Spending While Abroad
Sorting your receipts and labeling them carefully will help everyone when it comes to returning unused funds, completing expense reports and reconciling everything. It is important to think about this as you and highly recommended that one faculty leader keep track of T card payments and receipts and the other the Travel Advance payments and receipts.
Either way, all receipts should be labeled as T card; Travel Advance, and credit card or cash:
- T card payments
- Travel Advance payments
In addition, it is essential that when submitting your uploaded pictures of receipts you write on the receipts what type of expense you were paying for:
- Transportation
- Accommodation
- Meals
- Entrance Fees/Tours
- Tips
- Miscellaneous
Since you’re making payments in foreign currency, make sure that the date is on the receipt. If you’re using local currency to make cash payments, the date you need to document is the date you changed the money from U.S. dollars to local currency.
Format of Receipts:
- Receipts should be uploaded into Chrome River before your visit to the Study Abroad office when you return. You may want to keep your receipts until they have all been reconciled in Chrome River in case you need it when you return.
If you are giving money to the group for an event or for meal(s), you may create a sheet with the amount given to the student at the top and the student’s signature on the page. It’s recommended that you prepare a list with student names and print a few to take with you so you can add the amount on the form when you need it. For example:
| Name of Program: | Date: | Amount Given to Student: | Student Name: | Student Signature: |
Note: If you think you need to overspend the allotted amount from your program fees, it is best to reach out to the Study Abroad Office to review your budget. We may or may not be able to source the extra funds but we certainly do not want to run negative balances that would end up being paid by future students abroad.
There are two ways to complete an Incident Documentation form (see handbook for guidelines of what qualifies as an incident). You may print the form complete it and fax or email it to studyabroad@unca.edu or you may complete the online form. Both forms are below.
If it becomes necessary to remove a student from the program (see handbook for guidelines of qualifications to remove a student), please complete the Removal from Study Abroad Program form.