Reserve a date for your annual event
The Campus Events & Student Union (CESU) office has updated the way we work with Portland State groups, organizations and departments who schedule annual and recurring campus events at Smith Memorial Student Union and Hoffmann Hall.
- The “Prioritized Annual Events process” — which in the past has allowed established groups to schedule yearly events that met certain criteria — is being discontinued.
- Booking campus space for a single event can now be done up to two years in advance by any recognized group, organization or department. These can be recurring events or a special one-time activity booked through the CESU Facility Use Request Form.. Previously, such events could only be booked a year out or less.
- “Series bookings” — activities and meetings held in a regular pattern (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly) — no longer have to be rescheduled each term but can be put on the reservations calendar beginning 2 weeks prior to the start of fall term and be booked through the remainder of the academic year. CESU will accommodate series bookings based on room availability with the following limitations:
- These reservations must be for a small- or medium-sized meeting room only. Our large event spaces cannot be booked for series meetings.
- Reservations cannot exceed three (3) hours per meeting.
- Daily reservations can be no longer than 10 consecutive days per academic term.
- For summer series requests, CESU will continue to schedule three (3) weeks prior to the start of summer term.
In addition, all campus facility-use procedures apply to these reservations — as with all event reservations.
Why these changes? In recent years, especially post Covid-19, many of you have changed the way meetings are planned. We are making protocol changes that reflect your reality and improve CESU’s mission of providing equitable access and helpful staffing for meeting venues at Portland State. The prioritized annual event process had a number of requirements that interfered with planning by newer organizations, groups that frequently change membership and groups that simply wanted more flexibility. It was time to open up the process.
For CESU, the changes allow us to work more closely with organizers on your time table and not require you to make premature event planning and scheduling decisions.
To support PSU’s mission, certain “core” events, which are central to enrollment and University engagement, will continue to be given a slightly longer window to schedule. For example, beginning January 2024, CESU will accept core event reservations up to June 30, 2026. A list of current core events can always be found in the CESU Facility Use Procedures (Appendix A).
If you are not sure where to start or have questions about these changes, contact the CESU staff at conferences@pdx.edu or call our office during weekday business hours at 502-725-2663. (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during fall, spring, winter terms; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. summer term).
Got a bigger event? Learn more about booking the Viking Pavilion at the Peter W. Stott Center.