Rice: Unconventional Wisdom
Student Center

Student Organization Resources

Key Policies

Key policies for all organizations with offices/closets/cabinets in the Student Center, in order to get a key for your space, the organization must follow these simple steps:

  1. Submit a completed Key Access Template (including your advisors signature) to the Facilities Coordinator. This list will be reviewed and then filed so that key requests can be made.
  2. Once the Key Access Form is on file, students may request keys or access to the specific offices. To request a key you must complete (in person) a Key Agreement Form at the Information Desk of the Student Center.
  3. Key requests will be filed as quickly as possible and keys will be at the Information Desk when ready (requestors will be emailed when keys are ready).
  4. Anyone who has a key must return that key(s) before the final day of classes of the spring semester (regardless if they are re-requesting the same key for the following year). Keys may be requested before the end of the spring semester for new officers assuming that the above processes have been completed, a new form is on file and the old keys are returned.
  5. To update your Key Access List a new form must be completed and submitted before new keys can be distributed or new members granted access to your space.

Policies for Offices in the SORC

General

Offices located in the Student Organization Resource Center must also complete Officer Sheets and maintain staffed office hours, verified by a weekly signed and returned sheet. The organization is responsible for providing the Student Center with a current roster with all member names and e-mail addresses. This list must be maintained with additions and deletions on a semesterly basis.

Office Hours

Organizations that have been awarded an office are required to post their Office Hours. Office Hours are defined as a schedule of hours when at least one student member of the organization will be available to the general public.

The organization will be required to hold a minimum of ten (10) office hours per week. A copy of these hours is to be forwarded to the Associate Director of the Student Center by the last Monday in September.

In order to make it easier to allocate space at the end of the Spring semester, the Student Center Advisory Council requested documentation about the current use of space. This information allows the Student Center to more accurately allocate space. The Information Desk will be the central place for returning paperwork and for maintaining blank forms.

Each week (Monday through Sunday), your office will need to complete an Office Hours Sign-in Sheet as hours are kept. Each physical office is to maintain one (1) form. They are to be returned no later than 11:59 p.m. each Sunday of the semester. (They may be returned earlier if you do not have hours over the weekend.) If there is more than one organization in your office, you must work with the other students in the organization to ensure that the form is returned after all hours are documented. (If you need contact information, please contact the Associate Director of the Student Center.) If you need to use multiple pages, you can attach a second form; blank forms are available at the Information Desk.

The form is easy to complete. Each person who staffs the office will complete the date, print their name, fill in the organization name, the time that they started their shift, the time they left, and the total hours for that shift. It is recommended that you keep the form on the door in order to make it easy for each person to find it during their shift in the office and to eliminate lost forms.

This process will begin the first full week of October and continue through the spring semester, but it is recommended that you start tracking hours as soon as possible to allow time to educate everyone who staffs your office about the process. Also note that during finals, breaks and holidays (e.g., Thanksgiving, etc.) you are not required to hold office hours on the days campus is closed. The days preceding or following those dates you are required to staff your office and the total required will be reduced based on the days off.

As a reminder, the office hours you gave to the Student Center Administration Office should be posted on the outside of your office (visible from inside the SORC) to help others know when to expect your organization to be there. Thank you for your compliance of this request from the Student Center Advisory Council.

Applying for space in the Student Organization Resource Center

The SORC currently has three office spaces that can be leased, free of charge, from the Student Center. However, they must be applied for each year, and when occupied, must organizations maintain office hours:

  1. Space is not guaranteed to organizations that currently have space; you must reapply each year.
  2. Applications are generally due the week before spring finals.
  3. Groups granted space will be notified 3-5 days after the application due date.
  4. Groups vacating their office, cabinet, or locker space at the end of the year must have all of their belongings cleared and their space cleaned by the last day of spring finals.
  5. Organizations granted new space in the SORC for the upcoming year may begin moving into their space as early as the first Monday after spring finals.
  6. Contact Pamelyn Shefman, Associate Director of the Student Center, with any questions, concerns, or comments: (713) 348-3713 or pamelyn [at] rice.edu.

Please see the SORC Application for Office Space .

Application reviews will take place every April/May (and December, if spaces become available mid-year). Review of space will be based upon whether the organization adhered to the policies listed below, and will be conducted by the Student Center and Student Center Advisory Council. Mid-year reviews may be conducted in January. The deadline to apply for space will be as follows (all deadlines are at 5pm of the given day):

  • Fall 2008 (if space is available)
    Due: December 1, 2008
  • Spring 2009
    Due: April 6, 2009
  • * Fall 2009 (if space is available)
    Due: November 30, 2009
  • * Spring 2010
    Due: April 5, 2010

    * tentative dates

Forms

Here you can find a list of all the necessary aforementioned forms: