New Policy Updates for 2026-27

Find Full Policies here.

Financial Policies

1. Payment requests (invoice requirement): Only the original invoice submitted will be honored. If the increase is over 10% higher than the original, a new payment request, and if necessary, budget reallocation, will be required. Organizations that routinely fail to properly estimate costs may incur penalties including loss of privileges.

2. Co-sponsorships: Co-sponsorships over $750 to student organizations will require the approval of the SGA Finance Committee and must be submitted to them at least 6 weeks prior to the event.

• Co-sponsorships must be submitted through the payment request process ahead of the event. At no time will co-sponsorships after the event be honored. Groups submitting co-sponsorship requests after events will be subject to sanctions including loss of privileges.

3. Food item purchases: Food items must be purchased through a caterer and only in sufficient amount for that specific event. Food cannot be stored in student org lockers and may not be stored at students' homes. CSEI staff cannot go to grocery stores, markets, supply stores, etc. to purchase items on behalf of groups with the exception of block-funded organizations that are advised and supported by CSEI staff.

4. Sensitive equipment and larger items: If your organization is purchasing sensitive equipment (equipment valued over $500) or equipment requiring significant storage space, the group must obtain pre-approval from CSEI and have a plan for storage and maintenance of the equipment. At no time should groups order items in quantity or size that exceed their available locker storage space.

5. Software/technology purchases: To comply with UBalt procurement guidelines, any purchase of software equipment, licenses, platforms, and other technology must first be reviewed by CSEI in collaboration with the Office of Technology Services. Groups should plan ahead for these purchases as these requests may take significant time to review.

6. Gift Cards: Due to stringent State of Maryland regulations on the purchase of gift cards, purchase of gift cards on behalf of student organizations is not permitted from any student organization budget.

7. Travel Policy: For travel requests, student Groups must submit a list of students who are traveling at least 14 days prior to local travel and 6 weeks prior to out of state. Events without a roster of participating students will not be approved.

8. Revised Revenue policy: 5.2.6 Revenue fund usage should be reflected in the organization’s budget request. The revenue fund balance for the previous year will be examined as part of the budget request process. Events that will raise revenue for the organization must be disclosed and should rely on contributions or prior revenue to cover costs. In general, the use of more than a nominal amount of Student Fee money to seed revenue generation is disallowed, and any use of Student Fees to generate revenue is subject to additional scrutiny from SGAFC and may be denied if not well justified, regardless of the amount.

(New) No more than 20% of costs for revenue generating events/fundraisers may be paid for using student fee funds. The rest must be covered by revenue or other group contributions.

9. Student-fee funded off-campus events and travel opportunities must be promoted to the entire student body unless the event or travel is:

• Specifically related to an organization’s academic/professional purpose.

• Funded through organization revenue or fundraising.

Operational Policies

1. Officer Positions: To ensure fair opportunity for students to participate in organization officer roles, and to prevent conflicts of interest that may arise from students holding multiple roles, the following restrictions are in place for student organization president and treasurer positions: No student may serve as president and/or treasurer for more than 3 organizations in any single academic year. (Effective Jan. 1)

2. Rental car policy (drivers): Due to USM and State of Maryland policy, students may not drive rental vehicles secured through UBalt. Any student organization traveling via rental vehicle would need their advisor or another faculty or staff member to drive. The driver would need to be identified prior to any travel reservation being requested.

New Financial Policies for 2025-26
Find Full Policies here.

1. Donor Funds, Sponsors and In-Kind Donations

Donor Funds, Sponsors, and In-Kind Donations: Any student organizations requesting financial support from an external entity or requesting in-kind donations must consult with CSEI staff prior to any accepting any goods, services, or funds (e-mail studentorgs@ubalt.edu) CSEI staff will work with the organization to review University policy and consult with other staff as needed to approve the request. For in-kind items, the group must have secured suitable space on campus to store the items.

At no time should a group contact a vendor or outside organization for grants or sponsorship purposes without first receiving prior approval from CSEI.

2. Startup funds

Add to current policy (https://involvement.ubalt.edu/csei/financials/):

5.4.4 Startup funds must comply with all other policies that guide the use of student fee funds. Startup funds may not be used to buy incentives/awards or graduation items for individual students, or be used for any other purpose not permitted by general policy on student fee funds.

3. Update to Payment Requests – Co-sponsorships

Added the following item to payment requests:

• Is this a co-sponsorship?

o If so, please list co-sponsors and amounts per co-sponsor

o If co-sponsors are a student organization, each group will need to submit a payment request for their portion of the co-sponsorship

o If co-sponsors are campus departments, please attach an e-mail documenting their participation in the co-sponsorship and the amount they are sponsoring.

New Policy Updates for 2025-26

New Operational and Event Policies
Find Full Policies here.

1. Policies for Off-Campus Events:

Current Policy: https://involvement.ubalt.edu/csei/risk-management/

Policies for Off-Campus Events:

Student Code of Conduct and all applicable University policies and procedures are in effect for off-campus events.

• Any facility use or rental agreement must be submitted to CSEI for approval. At no time may groups enter or sign agreements with outside entities.

2. Food at Events

• Food at events must be obtained through a caterer or other supplier.

• At no time should students prepare food to be served on campus.

• Students distributing food should obtain gloves. CSEI will provide gloves for student organization use upon request.

• Bake Sales are permitted providing no food is prepared on campus and items are individually wrapped prior to bringing to campus.

• For any food brought to campus, groups must provide a list of ingredients in order to respond to any questions about allergens.

3. Creating Subgroups

Find policy here: https://involvement.ubalt.edu/csei/registration-requirements/

Merging Groups or Creating Sub-Groups: Each student organization must have a unique mission. Groups cannot be merged to form one group, nor can groups serve as “sub groups” under one group.

If two groups desire to form a single organization, then those two groups must both choose to deactivate and register a new organization under a new name and constitution.

4. Locker Policies

Find policy here: https://involvement.ubalt.edu/csei/operational%20policies/

14.3: Groups must be active concurrently for 2 years in order to be eligible to request an XL Locker. New groups may request M or L lockers only.

New Financial Policies for 2025-26
Find Full Policies here.

1. Donor Funds, Sponsors and In-Kind Donations

Donor Funds, Sponsors, and In-Kind Donations: Any student organizations requesting financial support from an external entity or requesting in-kind donations must consult with CSEI staff prior to any accepting any goods, services, or funds (e-mail studentorgs@ubalt.edu) CSEI staff will work with the organization to review University policy and consult with other staff as needed to approve the request. For in-kind items, the group must have secured suitable space on campus to store the items.

At no time should a group contact a vendor or outside organization for grants or sponsorship purposes without first receiving prior approval from CSEI.

2. Startup funds

Add to current policy (https://involvement.ubalt.edu/csei/financials/):

5.4.4 Startup funds must comply with all other policies that guide the use of student fee funds. Startup funds may not be used to buy incentives/awards or graduation items for individual students, or be used for any other purpose not permitted by general policy on student fee funds.

3. Update to Payment Requests – Co-sponsorships

Added the following item to payment requests:

• Is this a co-sponsorship?

o If so, please list co-sponsors and amounts per co-sponsor

o If co-sponsors are a student organization, each group will need to submit a payment request for their portion of the co-sponsorship

o If co-sponsors are campus departments, please attach an e-mail documenting their participation in the co-sponsorship and the amount they are sponsoring.

New Policy Updates for 2024-25

In Summer 2024, CSEI conducted a thorough review and update of policies impacting student org. operations, events, and financials.  Below is a summary of new and updated policy enacted for student organizations as of Fall 2024. The full policies can be found using the link below.

New Operational and Event Policies
Find Full Policies here.

1. Attendance Tracking: For any events involving catering, events must include the roster of attendees entered into Bee Involved, either through card swipe (which can be reserved through CSEI) or by adding attendees to the event manually (see link for details).
2. Block funded organizations: Block funded organizations are the only groups permitted to offer stipends. These organizations cannot elect to change stipend amounts within the same academic year. Any changes to stipend rates or payments will go in effect the following academic year.
3. Constitutions - Elections and Officer Removal: Election processes for student organizations cannot be altered within an academic year. Any update to election processes will be effective the following academic year. For an officer to be removed, a vote of no confidence must be passed by a majority of the voting membership (50% + 1 who participate in the vote). The voting result must be submitted to CSEI who will certify and approve removal of the officer.
4. Constitutions - Use of Template: Groups submitting new constitutions must use the template constitution found here (adding additional articles as needed). Any groups submitting revised constitutions must also use the template. Groups found to be operating outside of their constitutional requirements may be sanctioned by CSEI up to the loss of privileges and other group sanctions.
5. Events from outside organizations: Student organizations may not reserve space for external organization events. While it’s expected that groups may invite external organizations to their events or co-promote events, hosting an external event on campus is prohibited.
6. Event Participation: Sales of items from third-party vendors must not be a barrier to participation in an event (i.e., requiring a student to purchase a book cannot be a requirement in order to come to a reading).
7. Last Day to Book Events: Student Organizations may schedule events throughout the Fall and Spring Semester. Events during January or the Summer months will be approved on an ongoing basis (e-mail studentorgs@ubalt.edu). Student organizations will be informed of the deadline to complete event requests at the end of the academic year, which will align with the last day before final exams in Spring.
8. Minors on Campus: By policy, children ages 14 years or younger must be accompanied by an adult at all times while in a UB campus building. Link to UBalt Policy: https://www.ubalt.edu/policies/administrative/IV-6.2.pdf
9. Organization Duplication: The duplication of registered student organizations is strictly prohibited. Each organization must have a unique mission, purpose, and name. These details must be obviously different from all currently registered organizations. CSEI will review all currently registered organizations prior to approving new groups to ensure this duplication standard is met.
10. Participation Requirements: All student organization officers must meet the standard of satisfactory academic progress (SAP). No student below a 2.0 GPA or on academic probation will be permitted to participate as an officer of a student organization(s).
11. Students Communicating with Agencies/Representatives: Any time a student org works with an agent or business representatives to discuss contracts, a professional staff member from CSEI must be present or consulted prior to reaching out, and must be copied on any e-mail transactions. See policy on contracts for further details.
12. Ticket Sales: Changed "Ticket Sales" to “Ticket Sales and Events Involving Cash." Events involving cash transactions may require presence from UMBPD and/or Campus Security. Groups must notify CSEI (through the event submission form) if events will involve cash. Electronic payments or payment through any third party application (i.e. PayPal, Venmo, etc.) are not permitted. Student organizations must complete a roster for any tickets disbursed through student fee funded budgets.

New Financial Policies as of Fall 2024
Find Full Policies here.

1. Intended Use of Student Fees: While Student Organizations are encouraged to engage the entire campus community in planning their events, student fee funds should primarily focus on food, items, and ancillary benefits for UBalt students. Events that benefit staff, faculty, or the general public should be limited and prioritize the student experience. Student organizations may not wholly fund events hosted or presented by University departments, colleges, or schools. For these events, student organizations may fund up to 50% of the expected cost of the event, and should list anticipated co-sponsorships in their funding request.
2. Block-funded Organization funding percentages: Per USM Policy, CSEI uses a portion of the SGA fee (SGA Admin) to cover administrative costs to manage the funds. These funds must be sufficient to cover costs Including but not limited to, funding for a Student Org. Platform (Campus Groups) and a Graduate Assistant to process payments and budget requests.
3. Catering: Catering for Events (except recruitment and marquee events) is generally subject to a $800 per event and no more than $20 per expected attendee maximum. This cap includes caterer service/bartender fees. SGAFC recommends separating catering service and catering food expenses into separate budget request line items.
4. Payment Requests: For Payment Requests needed fewere than 4 weeks in advance, groups are asked to in the payment request form to further explain their request. While 4 weeks lead time is encouraged, we will review your request and approve if we can accommodate it based on the complexity of your request and available resources at the time. When you submit a payment request for an event, it's our assumption that this event took place. It's the group's responsibility to notify CSEI ASAP if an event is canceled or not held. All events paid for by student fee funds must be listed in Bee Involved and must include a roster of attendees.
5. Reallocation: If reallocation requests are not reviewed by SGAFC within 30 days, the request will be reviewed and decided upon by the Director of CSEI. Reallocations cannot move funds from one budget to another. If an expense requires funds from two separate budgets, then multiple payment requests must be made. Reallocation requests are not required to move funds within budget items.
6. Revenue Accounts: Organization revenue is recaptured and pooled centrally after a group is placed in inactive status (inactive for two years without re-registering).
7. Speaker Payments: For speaker payments, all payments must be all-inclusive of travel and other expenses. Note: Please see policy on spending limitations for maximum payments to speakers, which would be inclusive of travel.
8. Spending Limitations: Spending limitations on key items increased to reflect current costs (limits on catering fees, speaker fees, and fees for shirts and promotional items increased).
9. Startup Funds: Any organization that is registered with CSEI but not approved for initial funding is eligible to request startup funds. Funds should be used for startup expenses, initial meetings and programming, etc. Start up funds will only be granted on an as-available basis and will be awarded at a maximum of $500 per organization. Start-up funds will only be granted once per academic year. Startup funds are only granted on an as-available basis.
10. Tipping: Tips should be reasonable and customary and must be included in the receipt/submitted documentation provided by the vendor prior to the event. This amount should be considered when planning for group budgets.
11. Vendor Selection: CSEI may suggest preferred vendors that CSEI or the University regularly does business with, but groups must review and select their own vendors according to their needs. CSEI strongly suggests carefully reviewing vendors to ensure they meet Maryland State requirements and UBalt requirements. Groups may consult with CSEI prior to selecting a vendor if they have any questions. At no time may any student organization process payments to vendors who are UBalt students, staff, or faculty, or family members of same. CSEI will provide suggested vendors for supplies, and promotional products, as well as caterers currently contracted to work with the University.