General Policy
- Reservation priority will be given to Registered Student Organizations, to the best ability of Wisconsin Union Event Services (WUES) and Student Activity Center (SAC) Staff.
- Fall semester reservations will be made beginning August 1 of that calendar year. Upcoming spring semester reservations will be made on December 1. Reservations will be made through the WUES reservation system.
- The SAC Front Desk Staff may only make reservations 3 days prior to the event. All other reservations must be made through WUES.
- Peak hours are defined as 5PM to close of building Monday through Saturday and all hours open on Sundays.
- The SAC Front Desk Staff has the right to cancel a reservation if unable to contact one of the main contact persons listed to confirm details.
Multipurpose Room Reservation Limits and Guidelines
- Weekly series reservations for the Multipurpose Room are on a first-come-first-served basis.
- Groups may only reserve up to four hours during peak times (Monday-Friday after 5 p.m, all day Saturday and Sunday).
- Reservations outside peak times can be made without restriction within a reasonable consideration (i.e. an organization cannot book the room for every hour of the upcoming week).
- Additional hours may be reserved up to one (1) week in advance of the event date. There are no restrictions regarding additional hours as prescribed in part (3).
- Conference room access is limited to 15 minutes prior to event start time. Unless before SAC opening time or another reservation is still using the space.
- Single events may not exceed more than four (4) hours. Groups may petition for an exception through the SAC Governing Board or SAC Floor Manager.
- Minimum occupancy of the Multipurpose room for reserved times during peak hours is 3 people. Maximum occupancy is 50 people.
General Conference Room Reservation Limits and Guidelines
- Weekly series reservations for the SAC conference rooms are on a first-come-first-served basis.
- Reservations outside peak times can be made without restriction within a reasonable consideration.
- Single events may not exceed more than four (4) hours. Groups may petition for an exception through the SAC Governing Board or SAC Floor Manager.
- Groups may not reserve more than two conference rooms per day in the SAC conference rooms (including the Multipurpose Room). Groups may petition for an exception through the SAC Governing Board or SAC Floor Manager.
- Conference room access is limited to 15 minutes prior to event start time. Unless before SAC opening time or another reservation is still using the space.
- Use of glitter and excessive trash is strictly prohibited in the SAC conference rooms. Glitter will result in a Reservation Penalty (No-Show Strike).
- Physical activity in general conference rooms is prohibited.
- Minimum occupancy for all conference rooms for reserved times during peak hours is 4 people. Maximum occupancy varies by specific room, please contact the SAC front desk prior to making reservations.
Food
- Groups may bring catered food into the SAC but must abide by the University Catering Policy:
- Definition of Vendor Catering: an off-campus catering vendor provides food service for university-sponsored programs within University facilities.
- Vendors that provide catering for SAC events must be insured and have a City of Madison Catering License.
- Catering does not include:
- Foods purchased/prepared by university staff.
- Prepared food (i.e., box lunches, cheese trays, pizza, cookies, fruit, etc.) purchased from a licensed restaurant. These may be delivered by the vendor or picked up at the vendor’s site.
- Groups may not bring kitchen appliances—of any kind—for food preparation. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Coffeemaker
- Rice cooker
- Slow cooker
- Toaster
- Microwave
- Popcorn maker
- Waffle iron
- Groups may bring pre-made bought or homemade food into the SAC but must clean up after the event. Groups are strongly advised to ask for extra garbage bags prior to the start of the event.
- Groups are responsible for leaving the room in the same condition as when the group arrived, if additional cleaning supplies are needed they may request them from the front desk.
- If the room is not adequately cleaned, the group may receive a reservation strike.
Loss of Reservation Privileges
The Student Activity Center Front Desk Staff reserve the right to revoke a group’s reservation privileges due to any of the following reasons:
- All SAC events must comply with the UW-Madison: Use of Facilities & Lands policy and support the university’s educational mission.
- Altering or damaging of furniture or walls of conference rooms is strictly prohibited.
- Room set-up will be done by SAC Front Desk Staff. RequestsRequest for specific room set-up must be made at the time of booking and/or 24 hours prior to reservation start time.
- Registered Student Organizations (RSO) found in violation of the Student Organization Code of Conduct, University Facility Use Policies, or the SAC Facility Use Policy will be reported to the Director of the Center for Leadership & Involvement (CfLI).
- RSOs may not reserve rooms for the use of external groups (companies, non-profit organizations, etc).
- RSOs must specify on promotion that events held in SAC are only open to students, faculty, and staff—unless a university department co-sponsors the event.
Three-Strike System
Groups may receive a strike and/or lose reservation privileges, in addition to policy violations listed above, for the following reasons:
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Reservation Penalty/ No-show Policy
The following measure will result in one strike for each occurrence unless otherwise stated.
- Failure to attend reservation will result in a No-Show.
- All reservations must be canceled 12 hours prior to booking. Failure to cancel within 12-hours will result in one strike. Late cancellations are considered a no-show. An exception shall be granted if there is a national weather service warning that applies to the City of Madison, though groups shall notify the SAC as quickly as possible that they will not be in attendance.
- Late arrival of over 20 minutes.
- Usage of space 15 minutes over reservation time or into another organization'sorganizations reservation.
- Failure to use space for at least 75% of reservation time. Records will be kept by the SAC Front Desk.
- Reservations under one hour are exempt.
- Study sessions are strictly prohibited and if observed by the SAC Staff. Unless reserved for peer advising or tutoring.
- Groups that reserve study sessions will receive one warning notification of policy after the first offense and lose all reservation privileges after the third offense.
- Violating minimum or maximum occupancy restrictions. During non peak hours only the maximum occupancy shall apply.
- Misuse of facilities, which includes, but is not limited to the following:
- Altering or damaging of furniture or walls of conference rooms
- Use of glitter
- Failure to clean up after use. Including but not limited to
- Putting tables/chairs back to original room formatting
- Failure to clean up food
- Physical activity outside of the Multipurposeof Multipurpose room, in general spaces, including hallways.
- The use of alcohol and illegal substances is strictly prohibited on SAC premises. The discovery of such use by an organization will result in an immediate disbarment of facility use. The specified duration of disbarment will be a matter of the SAC Governing Board, but shall not be less than the end of the current academic semester.
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Day-to-day Reservation Penalty/No-Show Procedure and Appeal
Groups that receive a reservation penalty or a no-show penalty for a violation of the policies prescribed above will be penalized under the Three-Strike System.
- First offense: Email follow-up with policy notification; no action taken.
- Second offense: Email notification; warning put on the group.
- Third offense: The groups reservations will be revoked. They may appeal this decision to the SACGB. They will be scheduled for a hearing where the SACGB may overturn individual strikes of the group.
- All reservation sanctions shall only last until the end of the academic semester at which time their reservation privileges shall be restored.
