Department of Student Engagement

Student CEEF Guide

CEEF is made up of $250,000 from SAF and is refilled to that amount through Rollover every year. $150,000 goes towards emergencies, while $100,000 goes towards student initiatives. The administration can propose emergency proposals, but they have to be approved by the CEEF committee.

The funding must be used to enhance the Brandeis community as a long term benefit. The emergency projects must be related to student life and student activities.

Funding Decisions

CEEF can choose to make the following decisions on funding:

  • Full funding: The project plan is thorough and cost-effective, making note of all expenses and contingency plans. Thorough consultation with a faculty advisor is clear and an itemized list of item to be purchases is included. Projects do not overlap with current university services and serve a sizable portion of the community. They are fully accessible and the scope is well-defined.
  • Partial funding: Not all projects that are carefully planned are fully funded. When projects are larger in their capital requirements and questions arise about their practicality, they may be considered for partial funding. If a project could be partially covered by other sources of capital available to students, we will fund the components that could only be funded by CEEF and unobtainable otherwise.
  • No funding: If the plan is not thorough, does not impact a significant portion of the community, and a faculty advisor has little to no involvement, it is unlikely that it will receive funds. When a project does not fulfill CEEF’s purpose and does not meet basic requirements for competence, it will not receive funding.

Board Members and Elections

The CEEF committee will have 5 members.

  • One member will be elected from the Executive Board

  • One member will be elected from the Allocations Board

  • One member will be elected from the Senate

  • Two members will be elected from within the Brandeis Undergraduate Body

The two members elected from the Undergrad Community will run elections along with the Spring semester Union elections. The position will be a two semester seat.

The two elected community members will join the current CEEF committee for training and onboarding. The elected members from the Union will stay in position until new members are elected at the beginning of the year.

The members will vote one of the elected 5 to be the chair. The chair will be responsible for communicating with the Financial advisor and will have to be responsible to ensure that the data for funds is placed in SUMS.

Schedule

  • Applications Out: The applications will be out by the middle of Spring semester of each year. The Application will be sent with comprehensive guidelines and dates.
  • Applications Deadline: The applications deadline will be at the latest, three weeks from the beginning of the Fall Semester- September 21st.
  • Applications Approval: Once applications are submitted, the committee will have two weeks of reading and screening finalist proposals. The final proposals will be presented to the committee in the following week. Decisions will be made after a week from presentations. The applications approval process will not take more than four weeks from the deadlines.
    Capital projects tend to take a long time and need to be wrapped up before Commencement. For a capital improvement (defined as fixed equipment costing $5,000 or more) may range from November through April, while one-time campus events funded by CEEF remain exclusively done in the spring.
  • Spending: The selected projects will be entered into the SUMS system within two weeks from decisions. The projects will be implemented during the Fall and Spring semester of the same fiscal year. If the project is not completed within the fiscal year, it will be up to the discretion of the board to decide if that funding will continue. The proposal head must inform CEEF if the project will not be completed.

Resources

  • Student Activities: While Student Activities is mainly geared towards events and one-time projects, they may be necessary contacts for the SCC, Chum’s, SSB, SPS or other related necessities for CEEF projects. Potential points of contact may be the staff in Student Activities including not limited to the Operations Specialist.

  • Facilities: Most CEEF projects will require large infrastructure support and communication. Students will likely want to communicate with Facilities points of contact.

  • DCL: Some CEEF projects may involve residence life, where contact with the Director of Department of Community Living is necessary.

  • Public Safety: CEEF projects may have an implication on public safety policies or regulations. On large projects, students may need to contact the Director of Public Safety.