Written by Charlotte Penhall
So you’ve seen this weird thing called SSAF being talked about all over campus. It even shows up in your student portal but what exactly is it?
SSAF stands for Student Services and Amenities Fee. In 2024, these fees are $43 per 8-point subject and help to provide non-academic facilities and support services for students, such as IT services.
SSAF can also change each year, so to keep up-to-date with SSAF information, please visit this link.
When it comes to paying SSAF, you can either pay upfront at the start of each session or like me, you can defer SSAF with an SA-HELP loan as long as you are eligible. This will put your SSAF onto your HECS (if you have one!) and could look something like this for a singular subject:
To do this, look for ‘Request eCAF’ under the ‘My Account’ tab on your student portal.
Now, you might be wondering, “Where does your SSAF money go?” Well here are just a few projects that are SSAF funded.
Sports and Uni Nationals:
SSAF helps fund sports programs and university nationals, bringing together students from across all campuses and online. This provides opportunities for students to connect with communities, compete in their chosen sport, build leadership skills, and build friendships. It helps create a sense of belonging for students who may not have otherwise crossed paths.
In 2023, 176 students competed in Uni Nationals covering a range of sports. To name a few, Charles Sturt had 5 in long-distance running, 12 for Indigenous Nationals, 1 in Uni Nationals Athletics, 1 in Uni Nationals Triathlon, 5 at Uni Nationals Swimming and 152 at Uni Nationals multi-sport Div 1 and 2 bringing home a raft of medals for Charles Sturt. There’s a sport for everyone! In 2023 there were also 1079 social sport registrations participating across 5 campuses!
Emergency Accommodation from the RESlife team
This is one of the most important things SSAF goes towards. Emergency accommodation is kept vacant and available on every campus and is ready to be activated as an emergency option for students in need. This can be from various degrees of distress like financial need, domestic violence, and homelessness for example. By providing emergency accommodation when needed for students, it helps them stay in university where they may have otherwise had to drop out.
In 2023, SSAF emergency accommodation from the RESlife team supported 3 students for 46 nights on our Albury, Bathurst, and Orange campuses.
To find out more, reach out to Residence Life Coordinator at ask@csu.edu.au.
Campus Vibrancy and Student Entertainment Events
To end on a happier note, SSAF has also contributed to multiple campus vibrancy and student entertainment events this year. I’m sure you would remember the ‘Sweet Treat Tuesday’ we had on August 6th. Other events from the year include free food for students preparing for exams, Donut Day in March, Cupcake Day in May, and Foundation Day BBQs in July.
The other things that SSAF went towards but wasn’t limited to were:
- Careers and Skills Festival
- Free food and stationary stations for students in the Library
- Student Wellbeing Support Line
- Orientation Events
- Elite Athlete and Performer Program
- International student support
- LinkedIn Learning
- Netball Courts Lighting on Wagga Wagga campus
- Inclusive and Accessible Pathways Diggings Oval
- Common Area at Bathurst Campus
Now I know that was a lot. You probably didn’t know that SSAF went to so many things! If you want to make the most of your SSAF funding, I recommend attending events like ‘Sweet Treat Tuesday,’ grabbing food that is placed out during exams for students, and using support services.
This ensures that SSAF funding isn’t just sitting there doing nothing and is giving back to students! By showing up to events funded by SSAF, it shows us what works and if it should continue.
If you would like to have your say on where SSAF funding goes, submit an ‘expression of interest’ form for the annual SSAF funding round. These projects could be funded for 2025.
The round closes 5pm Sunday 22 September, so get in quick! Click here to have your say!
Charlie Blog is a SSAF funded initiative.
