Last update 03/27/24
IMPORTANT SURF HOUSING INFORMATION
The Summer Break housing application will open on April 12 for summer of 2024. Due to Geothermal construction, summer housing will be limited. Housing may not be available to late applicants. Encourage your students to get their application in on-time if they want to stay in campus housing during SURF!
The Summer Break housing application will open on April 12 for summer of 2024.The priority deadline for summer housing requests is Sunday, April 28, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. Due to Geothermal construction, summer housing will be limited. Housing may not be available to late applicants. Encourage your students utilizing summer break housing to get their application in BEFORE Sunday, April 28, 2024. Housing blocks are explained below. More complete details about SURF housing can be found on the participant FAQ.
The stipend rate for summer 2024 will be at $610 per week, for 40 hours per week. Allocations from Science Center funds will be for 8 weeks, for a total stipend payment of $4,880. For hourly funding sources, the rate is $15.25.
10 week projects are a total stipend payment of $6,100 for 40 hours per week.
Campus Housing is charged at a weekly rate of $267 (includes room and board), billed by block period. Students who receive a meal plan exemption qualify for a reduced weekly rate of $160 (includes room only).
On this page:
Current SURF process
Essential Student Information
Housing block information
Student Eligibility
Keys and Card Access for SURF students
For other questions or information, please see the SURF participant FAQ or email SURF.
Summer 2024 SURF process
1. The Science Center Resource Manager will keep the informational website up to date. As schedules allow, the Resource Manager and the Faculty Director will participate in one SURF informational meeting per semester, as part of the weekly STEM and Health Professions Lunchbag series.
2. The Science Center Directors, in consultation with Science Planning, will allocate the available Science Center funds to departments and programs. The Science Center operations budget and Schultz Foundation endowment fund 59 10-week “slots” each summer. The Science Center Directors’ Office distributes the slots to the Departments/Programs and they decide how to use them. You do not need to “apply” for these funds – just talk to your Chair or Director.
3. There will be no Center-wide application process. Departments and programs will decide how to solicit student participation in SURF and what information to collect in addition to what is required to pay students which is provided in item 5 below. The Resource Manager will also share a google form with academic assistants to use as a template upon request if they would like to use a google form to collect applications.
4. There will be no Center-wide award and acceptance process. Departments and programs will notify students whether or not they are offered a SURF award, how much, and under what terms.
5. Departments and programs should forward to the Resource Manager a list of ALL SURF participants. It is suggested that this be done by the Friday after spring break, 03/29/24 in order to allow ample time for processing stipend payments, particularly for graduating seniors who must be paid before the semester ends. For each student participating in SURF the following information must be provided:
- Full legal first and last name
- Preferred first name
- Class year
- Smith ID (99#)
- Smith e-mail addresses
- US citizen, Nationality/Residence Status (a US Citizen, or a permanent resident with a green card, an international student with residency outside of the US including the country of residence, or other)
- the name of their SURF advisor
- the duration in weeks of their SURF project
- For each student to be paid, the funding source(s) and the exact total dollar amount to be paid from each funding source must be listed.
If we do not have the information listed above, we cannot:
- Determine the eligibility for SURF students to receive, as high-need students, an additional cost of living stipend, equivalent to half the cost of campus housing;
- Provide supplemental funding if a funding source falls short of the total amount needed, which happens annually with CFCD;
- Proactively connect international students with the Office of International Services and Scholars for assistance with travel and visa restrictions as relates to their SURF participation;
- Process stipend payments in a timely fashion;
- Efficiently organize safety and equipment training;
- Communicate important information to SURF student while they are participating in the program;
- Efficiently verify and provide keys and card access;
- Ensure that participation in SURF is included in each student’s record.
6. The Resource Manager will e-mail a confirmation to each SURF student reported to SURF by departments and programs. Each student needs to review their information and confirm their participation to get paid. Plans change, and it is an awkward and time-consuming process to get money back from a student who has been paid a SURF stipend and then ends up not participating. SURF students cannot be paid until the confirmation is submitted. Graduating seniors MUST commit by 04/26/24 to be paid before graduation to avoid additional tax withholding on their stipend.
6a. SURF participants who must be paid hourly (from a funding source that mandates hourly dispersal), will still have to be hired in Workday by their advisor (or advisor’s admin) prior to the start of their SURF project in order to be paid on the college’s bi-weekly payroll schedule.
7. The Resource Manager will submit the necessary information to the appropriate College offices to make the payments: Student Financial Services, International Students and Scholars, and Accounts Payable.
8. For funding sources that mandate paying students hourly, such as NIH or CFCD, Faculty/Academic Admin Assistants will hire SURF participants to be paid hourly in Workday prior to the start of their SURF project in order to be paid on the college’s bi-weekly payroll schedule. More information about CFCD eligibility and funding can be found in the AY 23-24 Moneybook. The hourly rate for SURF 2024 is $15.25 per hour.
9. The Resource Manager will facilitate repayment of stipends for SURF students who have to shorten their SURF project after the commitment form is submitted.
10. The Resource Manager will facilitate additional stipend payments to SURF students who were underpaid and require an additional payment.
11. Any SURF advisor who identifies a student they want to pay via stipend after June 1, will be directed to submit an Accounts Payable voucher to acctspay@smith.edu.
12. At the end of the summer, the Resource Manager will solicit abstracts, create a final report, and perform any other close-out tasks, and add that summer’s data to the records kept by the Science Center.
What duration does a SURF project have to be?
8-10 weeks is the norm, but shorter projects are also welcome. If your students are utilizing campus housing, their project period will likely need to line up with available housing blocks (see below) so that they avoid paying for weeks they are not going to use.
The stipend rate for summer 2024 will be at $610 per week, for 40 hours per week.
Allocations from Science Center funds will be for 8 weeks, for a total stipend payment of $4,880.
10 week projects are a total stipend payment of $6,100 for 40 hours per week.
Campus Housing 2024
Campus Housing is charged at a weekly rate of $267 (includes room and board), billed by block period. Students who receive a meal plan exemption qualify for a reduced weekly rate of $160 (includes room only).
What are the housing blocks available for summer 2024?
ResLife has set time blocks of 1, 2, 3, 4 weeks during the summer and constrains students to pay for an entire time block that they start on, even for 1-2 days. The start and end dates of your SURF project have to coincide with housing blocks’ start and end dates. The table below indicates the possible dates and durations for projects lasting 5, 6, 8, or 10 weeks. For example, there are two possible 8-week blocks, one from 5/27 to 7/21, and the other from 6/23 to 8/18.
Clarification of Eligibility
Graduating seniors are eligible to participate in SURF. Graduating seniors must confirm their participation in SURF and be paid their stipend before graduation to receive their stipend as a stipend for scholarly work and not a prize subject to a 30% income tax withholding. Graduating seniors are not eligible for campus housing.
It is not common for J-term graduates to participate in SURF the summer after they graduate, but it is not prohibited.
- Graduating seniors participate in SURF to finish research in progress, usually a thesis, with the support of their research advisor. Because of limited funding, SURF funding is generally not available to graduating seniors who do not fit this criteria.
- As with seniors graduating in May, campus housing is not available.
- Stipend payments will likely be subject to 30% income tax witholding. We can only pay SURF stipends as a scholarship (with minimal or no witholding) when paid out before a student graduates.
- There may be OPT and other implications for international students. The ISSO is the best place to start with guidance for this.
Keys and card access for current SURF students
- have 24-7 exterior door access to Science Buildings (Bass, Burton, Ford, McConnell, Sabin Reed)
AND - card access to the relevant labs/shared resources that currently are on card access (mostly in Ford).
If a student had card access to specific spaces for research during the semester, they should still have it and there is no need for an additional request. Course clearances are not maintained.