Booking Rooms in the Student Center LPC

February 2008 issue

Why does the lpc student center allow people to book rooms in blocks over a week period a year in advance. A lot of the Greek life on campus takes up the student center rooms and then staff and faculty scramble bartaring for events. Is this fair? Shouldn’t the Student Center book rooms according to actual dates not prospective dates?

Response

Source: Joe Christman
Title: Assistant Director
Unit/Department: Student Centers
Extension: 5-4078
Email: jchris15@depaul.edu

Response: The Lincoln Park Student Center Policies allow student groups and University departments to reserve space in the Lincoln Park Student Center one year prior to the start of a reservation. Booking takes place on a first-come, first-served basis. As the center for university life on campus, it is important to have all types of events taking place in the Student Center, including a mix of student organization events and departmental events. The Student Center Administration realizes that at times, space can be at a premium and do their best to see that all groups and departments are able to plan successful events.

When a student organization or University department is interested in requesting a space in the Student Center, they are able to do so through a web-based reservations system called EMS EVENT. This site can be used to view the spaces and times that are available in the Student Center Facilities. All requests for space are made through this system. Once a request is made, it is received and reviewed by the Student Centers Administration Team. Each request is electronically time-stamped to ensure that each request is processed in the order in which it is received. Each requested reservation is reviewed by the Student Centers team before it is confirmed.

The Student Center Administration does not allow the practice of double-booking, which includes reserving several spaces for the same event or multiple dates for the same event. When the Student Centers Team notices that several dates are requested for the same event, Student Center event planners contact the sponsor to ensure that they are not double-booking. If a group has attempted to double-book, the request will not be confirmed until the group is able to pick a single date for their event. There are instances when space is not confirmed because of double booking. This is further enforced by the Student Center’s cancellation policy. If a group does not give the proper notice for the cancellation of an event several times, the group’s reservation privileges are suspended and current events are cancelled.

When working with Greek Letter Organizations on campus, there is a need to reserve several spaces at one time during the Fall Quarter for Pan-Hellenic Rush. Student Centers Administration works very closely with the Office of Student Life to plan these activities so that only the spaces that these organizations need for their events are reserved and the rest are left to other organizations and departments to reserve. All of these spaces are used for different organizations and unique purposes and none of them are doubled-booked.

Further, if an organization or department is interested in a space that is unavailable, the Student Center event planners are always available to assist with finding an alternative space. It is also possible for organizations and departments to work with Student Center event planners to place their space request on a waitlist so that if another event is cancelled in the desired space, the waitlisted organization or department can use that space.

For further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the Student Centers at 773-325-7346 or studentcenters@depaul.edu.