How-To: Reserve Free, Non-Classrooms for Simple Meetings

Know Your Needs

Every student organization will have their unique periods of higher activity during the academic year. During the beginning of each quarter, there are many competing factors that limit the availability of the most popular options that student organizations would typically choose for Simple Meetings.

The first step to finding an alternative is to know what your needs are so you can target a space more efficiently. Here are some common factors to consider:

1. Quantity of people
2. Location on campus
3. Timing
4. Privacy
5. Other accommodations (technology, food & drink)

As a reminder, a Simple Meeting has its own definition you can learn more about in-depth but is generally characterized by being for 24 people or less and does not require OSE approval.

Investigate Your Options

There are many possible meeting spaces on the university campus that can be utilized at no-cost/low-cost and with less restrictions but they can vary. Our office has compiled a non-comprehensive list of options to help you get started. Some spaces will have some fees associated with larger venues or extra accommodations.

Please be reminded that each space has is operated by its owner and they have distinct policies that they enforce:

• Meeting Services Spaces: Tresidder, Old Union, White Plaza
• Science and Engineering Quad Spaces
• Haas Center for Public Service
• Asian American Activities Center
• Black Community Services Center
• El Centro Chicano y Latino
• The Markaz Resource Center
• Women’s Community Center
• Spaces in the Undergraduate and Graduate Residences
  • Okada House 

Consider Your Alternatives

Utilize Zoom When Necessary

Meeting online with Zoom can work as a stand-alone option or a supplement to reserving space to accommodate more people. Some organizations will always have a Zoom available for members who cannot make it in-person. Zoom will also have a record feature that might come in handy for meetings that must happen but also in an inopportune time.

Accomplish Meeting Objectives

Consider alternate methods of being productive for what a meeting would normally facilitate during times of scarce room availability. For information collection and consensus, consider using an online tool to gather the data. For social gatherings, consider meeting in-person at a public campus venue like On-Call Cafe. Transcend the limitations of a meeting space by focusing on the goal not the means.

Schedule Around End-Quarter Periods

During the End-Quarter Period, no musical, dramatic, or athletic events involving student participation may be scheduled, unless approved as exceptions by the Committee on Undergraduate Standards and Policy (C-USP), nor may routine committee meetings be scheduled (such as those of the ASSU, the Senate of the Academic Council, or the committees of the President of the University) when such meetings normally would involve student participation.