General Information
The PASC office provides assistance with the arrangement of special events like visiting lecturers, conferences, faculty meetings, and welcome luncheons for incoming students. This includes coordinating location, catering, media equipment, travel and hotel reservations in conjunction with hosting faculty.
Please fill out the Special Events Form and send to your department’s Financial Assistant to begin planning your event.
Business Meetings and Entertainment
The University's use of funds for entertainment must be compatible with our stewardship responsibility and must have a strong ethical component. We should be able to show that our entertainment expenses are necessary and in the best interest of the public.
Things to consider before claiming an entertainment expense:
- Avoid situations that would require exceptions to policy (e.g. exceeding the maximum limits)
- Be sensitive to the current budget situation and public perceptions
- When two or more employees choose to dine together in order to continue business, or when a meeting can be scheduled during regular working hours, reimbursement for the meal is not allowed.
University policy requires approval in advance for all official entertainment payments and reimbursements. If you are planning an event where food or beverages will be served, please contact your Financial Assistant to confirm that these expenses are allowable with your funds:
- Date, time, and location of event
- Guest list (showing names, titles, affiliations)
- Business related nature/purpose of the event
- Justification
- Funds to be used
- Event flier (if available)
Only certain companies/restaurants have been approved to provide catering to UCSB, so please contact your Financial Coordinator if you are planning on using a catering service of any kind. You can also request from your Financial Coordinatoar a copy of the list of currently approved caterers, though even using these require prior approval by the UCEN. If you want to save yourself the extra effort, we recommend using UCEN Catering services. https://dining.ucsb.edu/campus-catering
Please note that events will need to be approved by UCSB’s HFA Dean, College of Letters and Science, in the following EXCEPTIONAL cases:
- If any alcohol will be purchased (or reimbursed)
- If any spouses/partners will be in attendance
- If any of the approved “meal caps” are exceeded (meal cap totals include, tax, tip, delivery, etc)
Maximum per-person expenditures for meals and light refreshments may not exceed the following amounts (eff. September 2022):
- Breakfast $31
- Lunch $54
- Dinner $94
- Light Refreshments $22
After the event has taken place, send all ORIGINAL receipts and invoices to your Financial Coordinator.
For general information, please visit BFS Entertainment Reimbursement.
For UC policy information and current maximum rates for meals and entertainment, see Policy BUS-79.
Classroom Reservation for One-time Use Only for One of Your Current Classes
For classroom reservation, please contact the undergraduate advisor for your department. They will contact the Registrar’s Office on your behalf. All classes reserved through the Registrar can be found through the General Assignment Classroom Inventory.
Room Reservation for Special Events
A list of departmentally-controlled rooms (e.g. University Center, Mosher Alumni House, Centennial House) and scheduling contact information for each can be at:
Office of Student Life Campus Scheduling Guide
Mosher Alumni House Event Spaces
University Center Meeting Rooms
Catering
Catering for on campus events must be arranged through UCen Catering unless they are booked. The date and time of the event may be reserved without details about food choices and attendance, so it is recommended that reservations are made as soon as a timeframe is set.
In order to write a contract, UCen will require information about your event including location, date, start and end time of catering services, number of attendees, food details, drink and dessert choices and account details.
If UCen is unavailable, an outside catering permit must be completed by the PASC office. Please inform your department’s Financial Assistant if you are unable to reserve UCen Catering for your event.
To review dining options, visit UCEN Catering
Media Equipment
For events that are public and not restricted to the students in your class, Classroom Services and Media Equipment provides technical and media support on a recharge basis for special events throughout the campus such as film screenings, guest lectures, invited seminars, Art & Lectures presentations, and film series, to name only a few examples.
The use of classroom equipment for public events is recharged to a department account. When you receive funding approval from your Department/Program Chair or professor funding the event, please contact your Financial Assistant to get the recharge account number.
To avoid labor costs, please visit Instructional Development prior to your event to get the podium key and login information to access the classroom computer and media equipment.
CLASSROOM SERVICES provides technical media support for the instructional use of the 95 General Assignment classrooms on campus. Some of those classrooms are in halls staffed by Instructional Development personnel, such as Campbell Hall, Buchanan Hall, IV Theaters and Embarcadero Hall.
MEDIA EQUIPMENT provides support for the remainder of the General Assignment classrooms.
Please peruse the following Instructional Development webpages for detailed information:
Rates: http://id.ucsb.edu/?q=node/6#media
http://media.classroom.id.ucsb.edu/