Payment Requests

A payment request is a document that authorizes the transfer of money out of the DGSC's account (GRD03), which is managed by the Graduate Center's Business Office as a non-tax levy fund. The Co-Chair for Business is the fund manager for GRD03. The DGSC uses payment requests to reimburse student out-of-pocket expenses, transfer funds to different centers at the GC and pay stipends to student leaders.

The Co-Chair for Business submits payment requests to CUNY Central's Accounts Payable department which are paid out to students by the Bursar's Office at the Graduate Center by paper check for either mail or pickup. Stipends can be paid by direct deposit (ACH).

Only steering officers, program representatives, chartered organization leaders, grant recipients and affiliates can submit payment requests. However, any individual may be the payee (the person receiving the money).

Reimbursing Out-of-Pocket Expenses

Students with authorized DGSC funding can submit payment requests for money they have already spent.

Submit scans of original, itemized receipts in English that equal or exceed the amount requested.
CUNY does not reimburse sales tax, so deduct sales tax from the amount you request.
- To request sales tax exemption from a vendor, provide them with the form at this link.
Do not use this form to pay an honorarium or speaker fee to a visiting speaker– see below.
Ship purchases to the Graduate Center, not your home address, or your request will be denied.
Payment can take a minimum of 2 weeks.
The payee's EMPLID should be included if they are a GC student.

Catering an Event

To cater an event, be aware that there is a $15 per person limit on food spending. See this guide for more.

To seek reimbursement for out-of-pocket food and drink purchases, include all receipts, a sign-in sheet with signatures or EMPLIDs and a poster stating a start and end time indicating a duration of 2 hours or more, along with the DGSC logo.

To order food with the DGSC's Corporate Grubhub account, write to CCB@cunydgsc.org and prepare to email sign-in sheets with poster to that same address after the event.

To order food with Aladdin Campus Dining, write to catherine.marston@aladdinfood.com. Menu linked here.

Honoraria & Speaker Fees

If you would like to use DGSC funds to pay for a visiting speaker, you should first decide whether you will offer an honorarium or a speaker fee. A speaker fee places an obligation on the speaker to deliver their talk, whereas an honorarium is a discretionary payment issued to a speaker as a token of appreciation and implies no obligation to provide a service. For further guidance, see this link.

To pay either an honorarium or speaker fee, the speaker must first register as a non-tax levy vendor on CUNYbuy. Guidance here. Registering speakers with CUNYbuy is done by Ron Paynter in Contracts & Purchasing, not the DGSC.

To pay a speaker fee, you should complete and submit to the Co-Chair for Business the following:

Speaker Agreement Form and Exhibit 1 - Claim for Payment
Speaker’s complete CV
Event flyer or program description that includes the date, time, and topic.
Speaker invoice for event with remittance address

To pay an honorarium, you should complete and submit to the Co-Chair for Business the following:

Signed Honorarium invitation letter
- Include payee’s name and address, date(s) of engagement, type/nature of engagement and amount.
Event flyer or program description that includes the date, time, and topic.
Any other available documentation to support the business purpose for the honorarium payment.

Paying foreign nationals is often difficult, and sometimes not possible. Consult this guide for more information.

A speaker cannot be a current CUNY or RF CUNY employee OR have been employed by CUNY, RF, SUNY, or NYS in the past two years. This includes both full-time and part-time employees.

How to Submit a Payment Request

All requests should be received two weeks before the end of semester. Write to the Co-Chair for Business if you expect a delay.

To submit a payment request:

Login or register for an account using your name and GC email address. This will be used as a digital signature under the terms of Bylaw #17. If you have already created an account but can’t remember your login information, you can request a new password.
Once you are logged in, click on the “Submit a payment request here" link below.
Upload the necessary paperwork (receipts, event poster, sign-in sheets) to the payment request.