2025 Senior Officer Approval Procedures
All areas of the University have been directed to reduce, slow, and/or defer discretionary spending. In BioMed, we will return to a Senior Officer Approval (SOA) process for all requests for discretionary spending effective March 14, 2025.
The process entails filling out this SOA request form as fully and accurately as possible. It will then be routed for review and approval. Please take note of some key points:
- All expenditures must be approved by the department head prior to the submission of the form.
- Requesters are expected to fill out this form BEFORE making any purchase.
- After a request is approved, a formal pdf of the approval will be sent to the requestor from the Dean’s Office to include with the financial submission.
Non-grant funded expenses requiring Senior Officer Approval:
- Travel. As outlined in the message, non-essential travel is frozen and is only likely to be approved if it was fully paid for prior to Thursday, March 13, and refunds or cancellations are not possible. This includes travel scheduled but not yet initiated. The difference between essential and non-essential travel is explained in the Today@Brown message. Travel that is 100% covered by grant funds is allowed. This also applies to student travel.
- Events. Events that incur no costs can continue to take place without SOA. SOA is required for all event-related expenses (that includes catering, table/equipment rental, security, custodial charges, etc). In addition to the SOA request form, you will be asked to complete an event scope document where you can provide more detail about the necessity of the event and outline all sources of funding.
- Other Expenses. SOA is required before purchasing anything non-essential of any amount, and essential goods and services over $500.
For questions about this process, please contact the Dean's Office.