At SMU, a special event is not necessarily defined by the number of people attending the event. Rather, the emphasis is on the event's impact on the university's ability to respond to a large-scale emergency that may occur during the event, or to the exceptional demands that the activity places on various support services.
Special Events are defined as any event which involves outside vendors, large numbers of non-SMU participants, or impacts multiple SMU resources and departments. These events could be initiated by any enrolled student, faculty member, staff member, or any other individual, campus organization, partnership, association, or corporation desiring to use campus facilities.