Hello Student Organization Leaders!

I hope you have been having a great summer so far. My name is Dr. Kim Farrer, and I am the Director of Student Engagement. I wanted to provide you with some brief updates for student organizations for the 2026-2027 academic year. To begin, as we transition to the new SGA Allocation Bylaws, non-exclusive student organizations will receive only their operational allocation notification for the academic year over the summer. Moving forward, they will submit each event, travel, conference, etc. budget to SGA on an as-needed basis to ensure only funds needed at that time are disbursed. There will be ample training for both advisors and student organization leaders on this in the Fall semester. Student organization treasurers can begin to register for treasurer training on RamConnect. Submissions for funding should be submitted at least four weeks in advance via an SGA RamConnect form along with your event proposal form in RamConnect, which can be submitted by creating an event in your RamConnect portal. More information on obtaining funding for events, required forms, and more for the beginning of the semester will be sent in a separate email in the next coming weeks to presidents, treasurers, and advisors.

Second, the Division of Student Affairs is proud to roll out our Weeks of Welcome model to introduce strategic campus programming to new and current students over the course of the first six weeks of the semester. With that being said, student organizations will not be permitted to host non-standard programs (anything other than a general body meeting, tabling, or executive board meeting) the first week of the semester. They can, though, collaborate with campus departments who are hosting events during the first week. We hope that student organizations can collaborate with departmental programming this first week, allowing them to focus on having their first meetings and preparing for the Involvement Fair which will occur the following week. Student organizations presidents will receive the required event management training on August 29^th at the Gold Standard Presidents’ Retreat, so non-standard events can occur after that for organizations who complete the training. It is imperative that student organizations are trained on all campus policies before hosting non-standard events on campus to ensure proper risk management can occur. Please look out for student organization collaboration requests from Kiara Guzman-Ramos, Associate Director of Student Engagement, soon to be a part of our Weeks of Welcome events. If you have questions or concerns about an event that first week that already has a reservation, please email engagement@wcupa.edu for us to connect and discuss.

Third, this email serves to provide guidance to student organizations for space reservations for the 2026-2027 academic year. Student organizations will have to submit separate reservations for each event they host to ensure the events can accurately go through our event registration process. Additionally, standard events that are titled general body meetings, tabling, or executive board meetings will be permitted to be reserved for a 2-hour maximum. Should organizations need to have longer general body meetings, tabling, or executive board meetings, they can email engagement@wcupa.edu to discuss exceptions. This is to ensure that space is being shared throughout campus in a fair way for all of our student organizations.

Finally, as mentioned above, we are excited to be inviting organization presidents to our inaugural Gold Standard President’s Retreat on August 29^th to help foster their leadership skills and give them the necessary tools to lead these important organizations on campus. Please refer to Kiara’s email from earlier this summer to ensure your organization is registered and has a representative there.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email engagement@wcupa.edu. We are here to support you, and we are excited about the upcoming academic year!

Thank you!
Dr. Kimberly Farrer
kfarrer@wcupa.edu