Fee Transparency Project

Student Fee Advisory Committee Minute Minutes February 11, 2019 Present: Ashley John, Adam Selcov, Chase Hayes, Lydia, Vignesh Derek DeMarco, Lisa Bishop, Veronica Mitry, Katie Hellier, Lucy Rojas, Venkatesh (add last name), Sue Carter

Guests: Allison Johnson, Dan Henderson, jean Marie Scott, James Blaine, Kara Snider, Barbara Silverthorne, John Rembao, Regina Gomez

Approval of Agenda, Minutes, Announcements

Introductions: Ashley prompts everyone introduce themselves.

a. b. Approval of Agenda: Lydia motions to approve the agenda, Veronica seconds the

motion. Motion carries.

c. Approval of Minutes: Katie motions to approve the minutes; motion is seconded. No

objections. d. Announcements

i. No announcements today

Referendum Authors

Lucy provides an introduction to the referendum presentations:

i. Brian Arao has joined the Dean of Students team as Associate Dean of Students and Chief of Staff and will assume the role of Campus Elections commissioner.

ii. Each year, SFAC reviews proposed fees for the campus elections ballot and

forms an official opinion statement about the fees.

b. Career Center – see Presentation

i. Guests are Barbara Silverthorne and John Rembao ii.

In 2017 there was an opinion poll on the elections ballot; the Career Center also conducted presentation and conversation with all 10 colleges at the college student government spaces and SUA and GSA. Career Center conducted 6 focus groups. An additional six student groups were consulted. In the opinion poll, Career Center learned that what students most want from the Career Center are opportunities to engage with internships and high impact employers.

iii.

iv. Listening tour fell into three buckets –more job and internships, transformative

experiences, and 24/7 access. John explains that last year, the fee would have been about $27 per student, per quarter. The Career Center was asked to defer the referendum. This was a good thing because the Division of Student Success made an investment in vi. Goals: create more internships for students, create more events for students,

meet needs of constituents and provide services 24/7.

vii. Students will drive decisions on how the revenues are spent via a student

advisory committee.

viii. Questions:

Adam: Is the Career Center currently listening to feedback from

students to incorporate into their planning activities? John’s response is that Career Center has a general services model and needs additional revenues to pay for experts to help develop services for students. 2. Katie: In terms of making use of funding that’s currently available, do

you have structure to bring education to faculty and staff to help bring

these resources to students? Barbara says yes, it requires a shift in how they structure their staff time. They are currently collaborating with academic advisers.

Viggy: $10 in the context of the total fees that students pay can be a lot. Data reflected on the Career Center website are from 2016-2017 and it seems as though usage has a drop off. John explains there was a drop off on coaching sessions because positions were vacant, while there has been an increase in employment activities such as job fairs. John explains that platforms are helpful but expensive; the Career Center hopes to go to platforms that can be accessed 24/7. Viggy asks a follow up – can’t you re-distribute your budget. Lydia: how soon after the fee is passed will students see changes? Some infrastructure is there and Career Center should be able.

c. College Student Government Fee Increase

i. Kara Snider and James Blaine are the presenters. ii. Kara explains that he author for the fee is listed as the CPCs iii. The fee is one of the original fees of the universities; it has not been updated for

37 years.

iv. The main points of the fee is to be able compensate welcome leaders at the

colleges who are currently volunteers. The colleges loses people to assist with this work. They are losing first generation students and low-income students in this role. Minimum wage has been increasing; commencement costs have increased over the years. Another goal is to increase programming. v. Kara explains that the budget for the fee includes an explanation of carry forward that each college has and what their plan is for using the fees.

vi. Each college advises students to use the funds for special projects; for example, Porter has been saving funds for a major project in the dining hall including lighting and drapery. James explains that the fee increase is separate from the carry forward. At Porter for instance, the carry forward is being accumulated for special projects. The fee will be used as current year funds to pay for staff.

vii.

viii. Questions

Katie asks for clarification on whether this fee is for graduate students? There is an editing error – the is only for undergraduate students.
Ashley asks about the results of last year’s Commencement Work

Group, which recommended that the colleges not be expected to pay the majority of commencement costs. Kara’s response is that the MOU was for last year primarily. Lisa says that it’s likely the colleges will be expected to contribute about the same as last year. James says that it’s important to have a reserve for unexpected costs associated with graduation.

Venkatesh asks how many more orientation leaders will be hired. Kara’s response is that the number will be about the same, but the positions will now be paid, which will help secure students in these roles.
Chase asks for clarification on which orientation activities will be

funded? What is the compensation? Kara says anywhere from $500 - $1000; stipend will vary by college.

Lydia asks how much of the fee will be under the authority of the CPCs and which amount under the Student Government? Kara responds that each student government constitution establishes the process; it’s up to the college government to vote on the budget and what’s allocated to the CPC.

Viggy: Thank you for coming in. Viggy says that he does a lot of

system-wide work and appreciates the idea of proposing to compensate students. Does this fee go to pay for staff positions? Response is no, it would go to pay student positions. James explains that as minimum wage goes up, they can either reduce hours or have reduced programming. Carryforward – why was this added? James says that after meeting with Lisa, the CPCs decided to address the carry forward amounts to help with transparency.

Venkatesh: will each college decided how to pay the orientation

leaders? Kara responds that each college government sets its budget so each college would establish those amounts based on what’s allocated. Lucy: what happens if the college government were to make a decision that’s incongruent with the referendum? Response, referendum language is general enough.

a. Feedback from group: Adam doesn’t suggest adding in more,

add a list of things that anything can be paid for. Adam says it’s helpful that there are not specific amounts listed. Should add in a statement about “at the discretion of the student government.” Venkatesh is concerned that there are line items in the budget but the amounts can vary college to college; Venkatesh specifies that the student orientation leader pay should be specified and consistent across all ten colleges. Adam disagrees and says that he thinks it’s better to leave to the discretion of the

d. TAPS i. ii.

iii.

Jean Marie Scott, Allison Johnson, Dan Henderson Jean Marie explains that this year’s referenda is a continuation of last year’s fee, which was on the ballot but did not pass. Student support was trending more positively. Jean Marie explains that there is a TAPS advisory committee, which has continued to meet to plan for the fee, including addressing changes that would reflect feedback from students that was critical.

iv. Last year, there were three key things that student gave feedback on: 1) transit

budget has not received an increase in 11 years while services were not reduced; 2) feedback from students re: Disability Van Service and why it’s not funded or partially funded by campus. Moving forward, campus will fund $200,000 per year for the disability van services; 3) fee increase was too much. Some reductions have been made, campus transit services have been reduced by 20% this year. Goal moving forward is no more deficits. The current increases in the proposed fee are graded to increase based on projected increased costs.

v. Metro stand alone is $195 per quarter, this is a comparable service. In the 10

year of the fee, the fee would be $191 per quarter.

vi. They are working on rolling out the jump bike program. vii. Questions

Adam says that he was the elections coordinator last year for SUA and was really involved in elections. He heard a lot of discussion regarding what would happen if the fee doesn’t pass? A big issue was that no one knew. Will TAPS come out with an actual list of what will happen if the fee doesn’t pass? Response from Jean Marie is that several things have been settled. 20% of the budget has already been cut. We haven’t had to reduce the Metro services. The advisory committee has advised that it’s important to prioritize Metro service over campus internal shuttle services. TAPS can work on being more definitive; it won’t be as drastic as the 20% reduction.
Katie: by increasing the fee, this doesn’t include parking, so parking fees would also be increasing. Jean Marie says there will be no parking fee increases next year. When transit services are reduced, don’t parking issues become more impacted? Jean Marie says this is the balance.
Venkatesh asks about how the budget is created for TAPS. Jean Marie

reviews the types of expenses that are part of the TAPS budget. 4. Veronica says that she has not been able to ride a loop this year at all; can services be reduced in the summer? Jean Marie says that as enrollment is going up in the summer, they are asked to expand services.

Viggy has a question about the agreement with the Metro. What do the

negotiations look like? Jean Marie says there is a long-standing agreement with the Metro. It was originally a “per-ride” fee and then evolved to be a flat rate to ride per student. 10 year forecast takes what is currently being paid.

e. Student Support/Student Services Hub

i. Presentation ii. How will graduate students learn about these services? There is not currently

great outreach to graduate students.

iii. Suggestion: check with Natham Bromstead at UCOP

free up some money

people don’t ask or make explicit requestd.

…

Motion to extend the meeting made by Regina. Venkatesh seconds. No objections. The meeting

is extended for 15 minutes. 4. Meeting adjourned at 4:15 pm.