For student organizations, it's easier than ever to get a room.

Earlier this week, Dean of the College of Arts and Science Richard McCarty agreed to a Vanderbilt Student Government-initiated proposal to eliminate room reservation fees for student groups reserving space in Arts and Science classrooms in the fall semester. It is a move that VSG President Joseph Williams and Vice President Wyatt Smith hope will lead to better allocation of student activities fees and save organizations money.

"This is a policy shift that helps everyone," Williams said. "It helps all the organizations, all of their budgets, and, in turn, helps and allows student activity fee funds to be given to more people for more purposes."

With all of the diverse interests represented at Vanderbilt, room reservation fees can be a hardship for small or new student groups.

"Being actively involved in a lot of student organizations, I know what a burden room reservations cost have had on small student groups," Smith said. "It was really unfortunate because student money was going to finance things that the university had negligible cost for."

The Community Partnership House and Sarratt Student Center are the only places where space can be rented without cost, but with the fee elimination almost all rooms in Calhoun, Furman, Buttrick and Benson halls will be available to student groups, free of charge.

"This will take a lot of burden off the Community Partnership House, who gives space to community service groups," Smith said. "They're overloaded right now, and there have been instances where they just haven't been able to accommodate all the people interested because there's not enough room there."

Due to concerns about research security, Wilson Hall is not being included in the room fee elimination. Student groups will still be able to reserve space in Wilson by the current reservation process, which allows students to reserve Wilson 103, Wilson 126 and at least one additional classroom.

An issue for the cost elimination proposal was the control the fees provided in case groups caused damage or a mess that needed to be cleaned up by the janitorial staffs in the rooms.

"That was really the critical issue," McCarty said. "I was really impressed by the plan Wyatt and Joseph came up with, which allows a fund to be set up in case there's any damage to the rooms or anything that needs to be cleaned up."

To provide accountability to the College of Arts and Science for damaging the classrooms, the proposal calls for the VSG and the Office of the Dean of Students to set aside a "Classroom Integrity Security Fund" totaling $5,000.
In order for the removal of fees to truly be successful, students must remember not to abuse the allocation of space and treat the rooms appropriately.

"It's important that students understand that with the benefits of free room reservations comes added responsibility on being accountable for your actions in these spaces," Smith said. "If you don't, we'll lose more than we have right now."

Williams and Smith said they were pleased to see their efforts pay off in their first major implication as the new leaders of VSG.

"It's so nice to see this now come to fruition," Williams said. "It's a perfect example of what student government can do when they work together, when they do their research and when they keep pushing even when they come up against some hurdles. They can actually get some real things accomplished to help student organizations."

— Adam Weinstein can be reached at adam.w.weinstein@vanderbilt.edu