Since 2012, the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) has helped fund new and refreshed student services, support, and facilities.
Charles Sturt has spent SSAF funds on careers and academic advice services, developing study skills, counselling and welfare services, redesigning our Student Portal, library return postage services, financial support, sports and much more. Many of these projects have been suggested by students and staff via the annual call for SSAF proposal submissions, which will open again on 9 August 2021 for funding in 2022.
Here’s one great example of how SSAF funds were spent to help students studying online last year.
Summer with Charles Sturt
The Summer with Charles Sturt program encompassed a suite of online activities, designed to help connect and engage students as they settled into online learning for 2020, in response to COVID-19.
The Summer with Charles Sturt program was hosted on the Current Students website, while promotions and discussions were held across email, Charlie, the Charles Sturt Students Facebook page and the Charles Sturt Social Facebook group.
The online activities were designed to appeal to a wide range of students. There were live online events at certain dates and times, as well as pre‐recorded videos, photo competitions and week‐long trivia to provide flexibility that enabled students to get involved at a time that suited them. Online events that were organised and attended by students included:
- Live trivia event from London
- Harry Potter wand making class
- Wellness Wagon nutrition and cooking class
- Frida Kahlo art class
- Reggaeton dance class
- Regular exercise videos: yoga, boxing workouts, gym and at-home workouts.
Why was Summer with Charles Sturt funded by SSAF?
The university aims to develop SSAF projects and initiatives that benefit as many students as possible. A SSAF Steering Committee decides how to spend SSAF funds. The committee includes student representatives and executive staff from Faculties and Divisions. It reviews proposals and spending in line with certain criteria, government legislation, student needs and preferences, and university strategy.
Criteria that this initiative fulfilled:
- Promoting the health or welfare of students
- Helping students with their financial affairs
- Supporting an artistic activity by students.
When the Summer with Charles Sturt program finished, participating students were surveyed for their feedback.
- 100% of students liked having online activities available to them from Summer at Charles Sturt
- 100% of students said the online activities made them feel more connected to Charles Sturt
- 100% of students would recommend the activity they did to other students
- 100% of students said they would take part in future online activities
Because the initiative was so popular, many students are keen to stay involved. Keep an eye out for Winter with Charles Sturt…
More about SSAF
To find out more about how SSAF is spent, or how you can have your say about SSAF-funded initiatives, visit the SSAF web page.
