By Carly Gallo and Rudrani Ghosh

Throngs of students walked the hallways of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), tanned and sleep deprived on Monday, March 20, the first day back from Spring Break. For many, the exhaustion wasn’t just from jetlag. While the Capstone projects boasted of horizon-expanding destinations like the Philippines, Ethiopia, Jordan and Papua New Guinea, students are burdened by having to pay the costs of these trips in advance. Now, more than a month after the initial claims were filed, SIPA is overdue on its reimbursement to students, affecting students’ ability to pay rent on time.  

Though the overdue reimbursements reflect the bureaucratic inefficiencies of SIPA’s financial department and program administration, it underscores a greater underlying issue: the reimbursement system for Capstone travel inherently favors the privileged and wealthy, and systemically disadvantages those who do not have financial buffers. 

Students have paid upwards of $2,000 in hotel and airfare costs, which the Capstone Program promised to reimburse. In addition, students personally covered the costs of food and transportation. The duration of the Capstone payment and reimbursement process has coincided with more than two rent cycles. For students living paycheck to paycheck in a city where the cost of living is 38% higher than the national average, the late reimbursements have grave consequences.

“The amount I expected to get back is almost equal to my one month’s expense,” said Anushka Bansal (MPA ’23) who traveled to Jordan for her project. “I had hoped to be able to pay the rent for the month of March with the reimbursement,” she added.

The administration’s lethargic response is not new or unique to the season. Capstone teams that conducted field research in December 2022 for their project have also not received refunds for their travel expenses, four months later. 

As costs of living rise around the city, students are struggling with financial burdens of the Capstone project. Bansal stated that she had to rely on a credit card to finance her living expenses and on part-time work to make credit card payments, while waiting for reimbursements. “I still was not able to pay off my entire statement balance, and could only manage the minimum payment on the credit card,” she said. 

In the midst of travel preparations, students received emails from the administration reminding them to file for reimbursements on time. “You should apply by March 6 to ensure you receive your reimbursements while traveling,” read one email from SIPA’s Capstone Coordinators, Saleha Awal and Suzanne Hollmann. 

Even though students completed the reimbursement process within the designated due date, the administration not only failed to disburse refunds during the trips, as promised, but also failed to provide these reimbursements for over a month after the trip. Instead, the Capstone Program Coordinators have solicited photographs from students’ trips to publicize the program. 

Awal and Hollman declined our request for an on record comment on this story.

Every Capstone team is required to appoint a SIPA Liaison to coordinate on matters such as reimbursement with administration. After painstakingly reviewing and submitting reimbursement requests for all teammates, SIPA Liaisons are frustrated with the waiting game and unsatisfactory responses from the administration. 

“I find it really unfair that the costs of projects that require travel have to be initially covered by students,” said Shally Baloch (MPA ’23) the SIPA Liaison for the project with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Mexico City. “Something like lodging can cost thousands of dollars, and having to rely on someone to put that down is a gross responsibility to put on students trying to fulfill a degree requirement,” she added.

In addition to the hardships associated with paying thousands of dollars upfront, the process for requesting reimbursement is time-consuming and bureaucratic. After students submit their requests to the Capstone Project Coordinators, along with receipts and justifications for expenses, these requests are forwarded to the SIPA Business Office for review and approval. This office also oversees the budget for the Capstone Program. We asked Calan Dwyer, Financial Assistant for the Business Office, for comment, but he was unavailable. 

The glitches in the process are especially notable, given that Capstone travel expenses and reimbursement are not surprises for the offices that process these requests, as the Capstone program has existed for years. 

The program does offer an alternative to students who cannot pay for the costs of airfare upfront, by providing an internal travel agent to book flights on behalf of students. In some cases, students traveling to “high-risk” countries received approval to travel from the SIPA administration with such short notice that they had to avail of the second option, due to skyrocketing airfares. While the option of booking flights through the travel agent alleviates the burden of paying the costs upfront, students have limited say in deciding flight timing, seats, layover timelines and routes. 

Many students who booked through the travel agents found themselves flying in and out of airports located further from their destinations. The MSF Team opted to book flights through the SIPA-appointed travel agent, due to financial constraints, and were given two options: to either fly out of Newark International Airport in New Jersey or endure a short international layover and risk missing the connecting flight.

For students who primarily reside in Harlem and the Bronx, flying out of an airport in another state created another financial challenge. With luggage in tow, students had to use rideshares and taxis that cost more than $110. SIPA budgeted a total of $40 for transportation to and from airports, which did not increase despite their own agent compelling students to fly from an airport 25 miles away. As a result, many students were forced to personally cover the balance of transportation costs to and from airports in two countries.

SIPA offers the Capstone Workshop as an alternative to the traditional Master’s thesis, which is a major reason many students choose to attend SIPA over other graduate programs. Capstones are a mandatory requirement for graduation, and students are highly encouraged to travel in order to build relationships with their clients and gain firsthand field experience. Students who choose not to travel for their Capstone projects are required to inform the SIPA administration by the start of the Spring semester, which is often before students have a chance to meet their own teams or their clients.

Although Capstone travel opportunities allow students to visit places they would otherwise not have seen, the financing mechanism inherently creates unequal opportunities for traveling. 

“While I think the Capstone projects give us an incredible culminating experience to really practice the skills and knowledge we have gained over the course of the program, I find that the reimbursement process assumes immense financial privilege,” Baloch said, as she and her team await an update from the Business Office.

As the semester nears its end, Capstone groups are reflecting on their trips to prepare for their final projects and presentations. Yet, the memories of sunsets on the Dead Sea and the taste of Ethiopian coffee are not enough to abate the financial burdens that this program has placed on many students. 

Students who require financial assistance while dealing with the effects of late reimbursements are recommended by the Capstone Project administration to apply for emergency assistance through the Student Application for Emergency Relief (SAFER) grant. 

Carly Gallo (MPA ‘23) is a humanitarian practitioner based in New York City.

Rudrani Ghosh (MIA '23) is a researcher and photojournalist, from Kolkata, West Bengal.