8/8/25
Hello Student Organization Leaders!
I hope you have had an awesome summer. We are looking forward to welcoming you back to campus in just a few short weeks! As with most summers, we spent a lot of ours reevaluating our policies and procedures, including our event registration policies. Our department worked with our Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Jasmine Buxton, to evaluate and improve our student organization event procedures. If you have already connected with us this summer regarding student organization events, you are aware that we have been changing some of our procedures.
In this memo, I hope to provide an overview of the new process and larger changes. More information and training resources will be provided within the next couple of weeks.
1. Student organizations will be required to send an officer to one event training workshop this Fall. They will take place from 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Sykes 115 on September 12th, September 19th, September 26th, and October 10th. You can RSVP to them now as they will be attached to the bottom of this email.
2. Any events occurring within the first two weeks of the semester need to be submitted ASAP via our new process. We are no longer using the phrases "special events" or "complex events." Moving forward ALL events will be considered in this process. Events will be defined by the following:
- Standard Events: Executive board meetings, general body meetings, and tabling events.
- Sports Club Practices: These will follow Campus Rec procedures.
- All other events
All other events (not standard events or sports club practices) will have to be submitted at least 4 weeks in advance moving forward. Again, since we are transitioning to a new process this summer, events occurring within the first two weeks of the semester must be submitted ASAP, even if you have already been working with us this summer to plan them. Please also remember that Public Safety requires a minimum of 3 weeks’ notice for all events that they might need to staff. If your event has not received full approval in time, your organization may need to consider postponing until all stakeholders have had the opportunity to review and approve it through this process.
3. Procedures for submitting an event will all occur on RamConnect:
- First, reserve space on campus (25 Live, Campus Rec, etc.)
- Instead of a form, you will create an event in your organization's RamConnect portal. This will activate the event submission form. The form has a series of questions to help you explain your event.
- There will be no direct link to submit events. It appears after you create an event on RamConnect.
- This means that only officers in your portal can create and submit events for approval.
- After you submit the form, the form will activate a workflow. If it is a standard event or sports club practice, SLI will just approve the event. If it is any other type of event, the below steps will occur:
- Your advisor will have to approve the event first. The other steps will not be activated unless this occurs.
- Then, the space manager for the location of the event will reach out to you for information about the event. Once they get what they need from your organization, they will approve the step.
- The last step will go to either Campus Recreation staff, Fraternity and Sorority Life staff, or Student Leadership and Involvement staff depending on the type of organization. These departments will assess the risk levels associated with the event and will guide you on next steps.
- They will connect with you to make sure you are connecting with SSI, Public Safety, Grounds, Facilities, etc.
- Once everything is good, they will approve the event in full. This will also publish the RamConnect event.
- This step must occur before your event date.
- All student organizations will take attendance at their events. This is in an effort to help track engagement at WCU. We will provide more information on how to do this depending on your event within the next couple of weeks.
4. Moving forward, advisors will be required to attend the following types of events for the duration of the event. This list is non-exhaustive, as other risk factors might also require their attendance:
- Outdoor events
- 50 or more attendees
- Events with non-WCU students
- Events with unaccompanied minors
- Late night parties and events
- Events with cash exchanged
Please be sure that an advisor or another faculty/staff member can attend your event if the above criteria is met before submitting your event.
5. As a reminder, all events must make sure that members and attendees are adhering to the Student Code of Conduct while at events. Any violations could result in group or individual conduct reports.
6. Again, we will be creating more resources and will send out additional information over the next couple of weeks with clear screenshots of the process, video trainings, and specific event procedures. We are actively updating our event website and many questions will be answered at our upcoming event trainings. In the meantime, if you need assistance with adding someone as an officer or creating an event, please see this RamConnect training.
Thank you for your flexibility as we update our processes. We hope that these improvements will continue to mitigate risk associated with our student organization events and better support you all in your event planning. Our workflow aims to strategically place all important event stakeholders at WCU in one place for easier student communication.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns!
Thank you!
Kimberly Farrer
Associate Director of Student Leadership and Involvement
Kiara Guzman-Ramos
Assistant Director of Student Leadership and Involvement |
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