Student Resources and Policies

Student Information:

Club/Organization Policies and Resources:

 

Online Room Reservations

All Wharton room requests should be made online at least three business days prior to your event or activity (this policy does not pertain to group study room reservations).

You must select category tags for all posted events and activities

Please review the procedures below which will help you navigate the new SPIKE calendar system.

How do I post an event and/or reserve a room?

How do I edit or delete a club event?

This is required when you add the room number received from facilities to your event posting. Only the person who posted the event and select administrators in the Undergrad office can edit or delete the event.

  1. Log into SPIKE and click on “Calendar”
  2. Click on the event to view the event details
  3. Click on the edit or delete link, which is located next to the “Export to Personal Calendar” link
  4. Enter the necessary changes and click on “Save Event Only.”

Failure to follow these steps may result in charges for unused classroom space.

What if my event is cancelled or postponed?

If you need to change the date or time of your event, you must either:

Failure to follow these steps may result in charges for unused classroom space.

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Group Study Room Policy

The Wharton One School Group, comprised of students and administrators from the Graduate and Undergraduate Divisions, Wharton Computing and Wharton's Operations group, established the policies for the use of Group Study Rooms in Huntsman Hall.

Use of the rooms is reserved for groups only. Single individuals using a room (even with a reservation) will be asked to leave if a group wishes to use the room.

Secure a Room via SPIKE: To guarantee a reservation for a room, you must use the online Group Study Room Scheduling System available through SPIKE. You must be a Wharton student to logon to the scheduling website.

Flexible Scheduling Options: You can schedule rooms for a total of 90 future minutes (in 30-minute increments). You can reserve a room for one 90-minute slot, one 60-minute slot and one 30-minute slot, or three 30-minute slots. The scheduling system has been configured to allow you to easily see which rooms are open on your requested time.

Use It or Lose It (and make it available to others): Groups who have reserved a room must show up within 10 minutes of their scheduled time. If they don't, they can lose their room reservation to another group which now can "appropriate" any empty room. (See the next item.)

Instant "On-Site" Booking of Open Rooms: If a Group Study Room is empty (either because it isn't currently reserved or because the group that reserved it failed to show up), you can use the Group Study Room's "On-Demand" booking feature to schedule the room -- simply enter the empty room and access SPIKE; the new On-Demand feature will appear in SPIKE's upper left-hand side.*

*Note that this feature of SPIKE is only available from the computer located in the Group Study Room. (In other words - you can't use SPIKE to bump someone's reservation unless you are in the room and intend to use it.)

Other Study Room Policies:

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Reimbursements

In addition to the Reimbursement Request Form that you must complete in order for your reimbursement to be processed, every student must sign a Penn Student Agreement Form for each reimbursement they request. 

The University does not reimburse alcohol or tax on non-food items.

All receipts must be submitted within five days of the transaction.  Failure to comply may result in your reimbursement not being processed.

When submitting a reimbursement request, the University requires that you submit an itemized receipt as well as verification that your purchase was actually paid for.  In some instances these receipts are one in the same (such as receipts from Fresh Grocer, Wawa, etc.).  In many cases, however, you will need to produce two receipts to satisfy this request. 

For credit card purchases: if a credit card receipt is not available, you may submit a copy of your credit card statement (with any sensitive information blacked out) which shows that you incurred the expense.

For purchases paid for with a check, you must submit a copy of the front and back of the check to demonstrate proof of payment.  If this is not available, please provide the bank statement that indicates the check cleared (with any sensitive information blacked out).

Please indicate on the Reimbursement Request Form if the expense should be reimbursed using Wharton Council funds that the club was given or through corporate funds (if appropriate).

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Huntsman Hall Plasma Screens

To advertise your club event on the plasma screens in Huntsman Hall, please:

  1. Login to SPIKE
  2. Click on “Life@Wharton”
  3. Click on “Upload new image”
  4. Read the user agreement and click "I Agree"
  5. Read through the image guidelines to ensure you understand the size needed to post
  6. Click on “Continue”
  7. Select “SPIKE LIFE@WHARTON: UGR View”
  8. Set an activation and expiration date (limit is 2 weeks)
  9. Complete Alt Text, Image Link, Caption and Notes if necessary
  10. Find your image (make sure you abide by the posting criteria or else SPIKE will not let you post your image)
  11. Select Post Image

Your image will be approved by an administrator.  You will receive an email if there are any issues with the image.

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Table Rentals

A small number of tables are available to Wharton students during normal business hours to use for Wharton club promotions. 

Note: You must contact Wharton facilities to ask for permission to use space in the Walnut/Locust lobbies to promote your events.  Wharton Facilities is located in JMHH F30 or 215-898-2575.

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Hanging Banners in Huntsman Hall

Wharton-Council-approved clubs may hang their banner on the ground floor overlooking the Forum (excluding the area above classroom entrances) and above the security desk at the Walnut Street entrance.  Only one banner per event is permitted and it may be hung no more than two weeks prior to your event.

To hang a banner:

  1. Send an image of the finalized banner to Kim Hein at deankr@wharton.upenn.edu along with the dates for the two-week period you’d like to hang your banner. 
  2. You will be sent an approval email with more instructions about the banner process.

You must get approval each time your club wants to hang a banner for a two-week period.  If you are hanging a banner that has already been hung, please resend the image to Kim Hein with the new dates you want to have the banner hung.  You must wait at least two weeks before requesting that a banner be hung again in order to provide all clubs an opportunity to have their banners hung.

Due to the limited space available for banner hanging, we suggest that you get your requests in as early as possible.  Banner requests for future semesters can be made a month before the semester begins.

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Email Policy & Wharton Exchange
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The number one complaint we receive from many students surrounds the number of emails they receive on a daily basis. Therefore, the Wharton Undergraduate Division does not allow clubs to send out emails to the class lists.  Instead, the Wharton Exchange was created to streamline all Wharton activities into one email thereby decreasing the volume of email sent to the class lists every day. 

The Wharton Exchange is sent every Monday and Wednesday and is a list of all undergraduate events occurring in the Wharton community for that week (including the following Monday).  These events are pulled directly from SPIKE (as long as they are tagged “UGR”).  Please visit SPIKE to post all Wharton club and organization activities. 

Please note: ONLY Wharton departments, organizations and programs as well as Wharton-Council-approved clubs may post events on the Wharton Exchange.

There are other ways to promote your event:

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Corporate Sponsorships & Solicitation

Corporate sponsorships are a great way for clubs to access additional funding in addition to Wharton Council resources.  Wharton External Affairs is the division that handles all fundraising for the Wharton School and is equipped with the contacts and relationships to help your club access some of the world’s leading corporations.  After understanding your group’s needs and long-term goals, the External Affairs staff can effectively match potential sponsors with specific interests within your organization.  To ensure that the system remains fair and effective, External Affairs kindly requests that student clubs submit all solicitation materials and letters in advance to the Director of Student Life, Lee Kramer. 

The corporate sponsorship and solicitation policy exists to ensure that multiple student groups are not targeting the same company and to make certain that the student groups are representing the Wharton name appropriately to potential corporate sponsors. 

Procedure for seeking corporate sponsorship:

  1. Please email a copy of the corporate donation packet and all correspondence/materials as well as the list of companies to be solicited to the Director of Student Life, Lee Kramer, at lkramer@wharton.upenn.edu  at least two months before the club’s desired solicitation send date. 
  2. The solicitation materials will then get reviewed by External Affairs.  The Director of Student Life will notify the club once the packet and/or solicitation letters are approved.  
  3. Once a corporation has agreed to support the club via a financial contribution, the club leader or finance chair must notify the Director of Student Life about the total amount of the corporate sponsorship as well as the name of the corporate sponsor.
  4. In order for the corporation to receive a tax deduction, corporate sponsorship checks must be made payable to the “Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania” with the name of the recipient club on the memo line of the check.  All corporate donations must be mailed to the Wharton Undergraduate Division, attention Ms. Anna Bond, JMHH G95, 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. 
  5. The check will then be deposited into the respective club’s account for their use. 
  6. Please be sure to check with the corporate sponsor about specifics on using their name and logo on marketing materials and how to properly acknowledge them as a corporate sponsor of your club’s event or conference.  Also, please be sure to send a thank you note to all corporate sponsors to recognize their gifts in a timely manner.

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Alumni Speakers Policy

Alumni speakers can enhance your club’s event or conference. The External Affairs staff can identify the best alumni speakers for the club and club event by utilizing their comprehensive alumni database. Alumni will be selected for a club event based on the relevance of their background to the club’s mission and their demonstrated interest in speaking at Wharton

Procedure for requesting an alumni speaker for events:

  1. Download the Alumni Speaker Request Form from the Wharton Undergraduate Division website here.
  2. Out of courtesy to our alumni and so that we can giver proper notice to them, please submit the Alumni Speaker Request Form at least three months in advance of your club’s event. Forms should be submitted to the Associate Director, Kim Hein at deankr@wharton.upenn.edu. 
  3. Once the forms are received, they will be reviewed within a couple of days and sent to Wharton External Affairs. 
  4. The External Affairs staff will then begin to work on identifying the best alumni match for the club and club event. Alumni will be selected for a club event based on the relevance of their background to the club’s mission and their demonstrated interest in presenting at Wharton. Again, you should submit the form three months in advance in order to give the alumni sufficient notice. 

If you have a certain alum in mind for your event or conference and if you have a personal relationship with the respective alum, you may send them a save-the-date email about your upcoming event or conference. However, please keep in mind that you will still need to fill out the Alumni Speaker Request Form since External Affairs will need to send the official invitations. Please indicate on the form the name of the alum that you have in mind for the event and whether or not you have sent a save-the-date email to them so that External Affairs can follow-up accordingly. 

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Speaker List Approvals

In keeping with university-wide policies, clubs who would like to invite speakers for club events and conferences must submit a list of names, a bullet-point description of the speakers, and proposed event dates for approval.  This policy will help to ensure that clubs are not inviting the same guests as other clubs or departments/divisions within Wharton.  This will also help to encourage club collaboration or club-department collaboration if more than one club or department is inviting the same speaker. In addition, the policy will allow all clubs and departments to be knowledgeable as to which speakers are being invited on behalf of the Wharton School. 

  1. Submit a list of names, a bullet-point description of the speakers and tentative dates of the speaker event for approval to the Director of Student Life, Lee Kramer at lkramer@wharton.upenn.edu at least six weeks before the proposed speaker event and prior to sending out any speaker bids or email invitations. 
  2. The Director of Student Life will then submit the list to the Dean’s Office for approval.
  3. Once the list is approved, the Director of Student Life will confirm the list of approved speaker names with the club via email. 

Please note that you must also submit the Alumni Speaker Request Form if you are inviting a Wharton or Penn alum (see Alumni Speakers section above).

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Business Fraternity Policy

In keeping with University policy, all business fraternities that are recognized by the Wharton Council and the Wharton Undergraduate Division will uphold a deferred-rush system.  Business fraternities may not rush, hold rush activities, offer bids, begin a pledge program or hold initiation for freshmen during the fall semester.  All freshman rush and pledge events must take place second semester of the freshman year.  Failure to comply with this policy will result in the business fraternity’s loss of recognition by the Wharton Council and the Wharton Undergraduate Division.  Business fraternities may, however, hold rush for upperclass students during the fall semester.

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International Trips Sponsored by Student Clubs

Wharton-Council-recognized clubs that are sponsoring a trip abroad will need to register their program/trip with the Wharton Undergraduate Division and meet with the Director of Student Life at least one month before the start of the trip. 

There are many university-wide policies that a club must follow when sponsoring an international trip.  Many of these policies are for the safety and security of the students traveling abroad, including risk-management issues.  The Director of Student Life will review these policies with you when you meet.

Wharton Undergraduate Division can also provide guidance and logistical help with your international trips including connecting your group with Wharton alumni who are living in the respective countries.  If you would like help connecting with alumni, please let us know at least three months before your trip departs. 

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