Work underway to improve campus event planning

Work is underway to streamline and improve how Central Michigan University manages on-campus meetings and events. 

CMU hosts hundreds of meetings and events each year on its Mount Pleasant campus, from small gatherings of registered student organizations to huge productions like the Special Olympics Summer Games and biannual commencement ceremonies. 

Cal Seelye, executive director of auxiliary services, said that with so much activity and limited resources, planning events on campus has sometimes been a struggle for students, faculty, and staff.

This summer, the new University Transformation Office will work with Events and Conference Services, University Events, the Registrar’s Office, and other campus teams to improve event policies, processes, and planning.

Defining the challenges

For several years, teams from University Events and Events and Conference Services had been looking for ways to improve the planning of events and programs for everyone, Seelye said. In 2023, then-President Bob Davies supported that effort by appointing 19 university community members — including faculty, staff, administrators, and students — to serve on the Event Policy Development Committee. 

Seelye, who served as a committee member, said the group identified numerous challenges related to booking, planning and coordinating on-campus events and activities — many of which were issues the University Events and Events and Conference Services teams were already working to address. The Event Policy Development committee also examined and assessed institutional policies and practices, as well as the roles and responsibilities of individuals tasked with planning and executing events.

Among the committee’s top recommendations were implementing a new university-wide event scheduling software program, revising the university’s event policy, establishing rules and guidance for using space on campus, and holding planning sessions to prioritize important events. 

First steps: New software, policy and prioritization process

Based on the committee’s recommendation, CMU adopted a new space use and event management system, called 25Live, in the fall of 2024. Over the past seven months, CMU staff members have been adding data into the new system, including information from two existing software systems, and training staff in several offices to use it. Seelye said a training manual is in development now and that CMU will offer training sessions for new users in the fall. 

Darcie Wilson, chief transformation officer, said she and others are currently reviewing and revising policies related to university events and facility use, as well as the workflows and processes for event management. 

Wilson and Seelye said they will meet with the president, provost, deans, and unit vice presidents to begin identifying and prioritizing major institutional events. These could include commencement ceremonies, large admissions events, academic college events, and more.

“Many of the university’s signature events are large-scale undertakings with many moving parts, and many are scheduled a year in advance,” Seelye said. “If we prioritize those events and their required spaces now, it will create a clearer picture of what is available and feasible for other events around the same time.”  

The Registrar’s Office will also use the new system for classroom scheduling, said CMU Registrar Keith Malkowski. Classrooms and labs will still be given priority for use by academic courses, and the platform will bring uniformity and efficiency to the academic scheduling process. 

Next step: Culture change

To address one of the largest concerns related to on-campus events, space use, CMU will change the way spaces on campus are owned and managed — a culture shift for the university community.

“The goal is for University stakeholders to work collaboratively to ensure we plan events and use space in the best way possible,” Seelye said. “Centralizing all spaces within one system will make it easier to see which spaces are available and will streamline the process to reserve that space for events.”

This means that some classrooms, meeting rooms, auditoriums and other reservable spaces that were previously managed by the academic colleges or administrative units will now be handled through the events system, he said.

Seelye said prioritizing signature university-wide events may also mean that groups hosting smaller events and activities might need to consider different venues or dates.

“The goal will always be to get to ‘yes,’ but that may require considering different times, dates, locations and even the scale of events that occur on and around major university events,” he said. 

Wilson and Seelye said that the new policy, processes and management system should improve efficiency in event planning and create a much better user experience for individuals who host meetings and events at CMU.