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Fee Transparency Project
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April 29th, 2020

AgendaMinutes

Attendees: Chase Hayes, Lucy Rojas, Fiona Weigant, Alexa Chavez, Brent Insua, Brynna Downey, Lisa Bishop, May Alvarez, Rojina Bozorgnia, Venkatesh Nagubandi, Veronica Mitry

  1. Approval of Agenda and Minutes
    1. Rojina motions to approve the agenda, Venkatesh seconds. No objections, motion passes.
    2. Venkatesh motions to approve the minutes, May seconds. No objections, motion passes,
  2. Announcements and Updates
    1. Announcements
      1. CARES Act - Lucy
        1. Document provided by UCOP, lists a formula for how the amount of money for each campus was allocated.
        2. 50% of the funding will go towards financial aid. AVC Whittingham has formed a group, and has reached out to student bodies such as GSA and SUA for consultation. The other 50% will help offset revenue loss from the pandemic. Kimberly will be spearheading this as the Budget Director.
          1. Fiona asks if any other groups will be consulted? Lucy is not sure, but SFAC has been offered for advising. Fiona follows up asking if the 50% can support fee-supported units or staff salaries that support students, with a possibility for student fees to be refunded. Fiona advises formulating questions before each guest visits the meeting.
          2. Lisa shares that units are waiting for more directives from the government about how this money will be spent.
          3. Chase offers sending questions to Lisa, who can relay them to Kimberly.
        3. Kimberly Register offered to visit with SFAC next week
        4. Recommendation - invite AVC Michelle Whittingham
          1. Chase is interested in inviting AVC Whittingham regarding Financial Aid, specifically how and which types of students will receive money.
          2. Fiona asks if Financial Aid will be requiring students to update their FAFSAs if their circumstances have since changed? Or will Fin Aid use what is currently on file? How will the burden placed on students be offset? Chase suggests letting SUA deal with the Financial Aid side of the plan, and SFAC check in with Kimberly about the other half of funding.

Chase adds that the Financial Aid office is taking budget appeals or adjustments as they normally do. The only difference is that they have more money to pull from now.

        1. Chase suggests formulating questions during today’s meeting. What are Planning and Budget’s goals or objective targets for using these funds? What are their priorities? What are student priorities for the campus?
          1. Lucy notes that the document says it will “supplement lost revenue”. Assuming there will be more loss than available funds, she wants to ask how to better understand how the priority will be set according to how much is given to each unit, for example housing will have a lot of lost revenue.
          2. Chase requests that SFAC get a breakdown afterwards of how this funding is allocated across campus.
      1. Update from Meeting with Chancellor’s Office and Planning & Budget - Lucy and Lisa
        1. Lucy shares that she, Lisa, Kimberly, and Anna met this past week. They have started drafting a policy and procedures, and SFAC feedback will be included in the language. She and Lisa are working on these drafts. SFAC likely won’t be engaged until fall quarter for feedback, but in the meantime Anna and Kimberly are interested in having SFAC routinely review fees and be included in the policy.
        2. Lisa’s suggestion was to rotate fees every year.
          1. Chase thinks it could be helpful to assign a member specific fees to analyze throughout the year, to alleviate the burden of the entire group going through all fees at once.
          2. Lisa says there is not a specific person to discuss some of these fees, and questions should be directed to fee owners. Planning and Budget doesn’t monitor every fee expense. Some of these fees support more than one unit.
          3. Venkatesh says that there should be direct student feedback separate from the fee users’ feedback.
      2. Other Announcements
        1. Chase shares that he and Brent reported to SUA on Tuesday and asked the group if there are any units or departments that SFAC should consult. SUA suggested meeting with the DRC and seeing how they’ve been impacted.
          1. Lucy asks if there is any discussion or feedback that SUA requested? Chase is not sure, and mentions asking how services are being utilized during the pandemic.
  1. Campus Elections Discussion
    1. Plan elections forum event with referendum authors
      1. Chase asks if anyone has ideas for how SFAC can go about elections and referendum outreach this year?
        1. Brent suggests a Q&A panel with the referendum authors. Chase mentions that SFAC can use a webinar model, and publicize the virtual event to different spaces.
        2. Rojina asks if SFAC will have a presence at Brian Arao’s panel? Chase says the committee could go to that instead of hosting its own forum.
    2. Elections voting dates: May 11th - May 20th
  2. Outreach
    1. SFAC Outreach into student spaces
      1. Examples and Drafts
        1. SFAC can update the campus body about this year’s projects. This is a way to combine elections, updates, and advertising open positions on the committee.
        2. For example, if everyone is interested in member profiles, members can send bios and photos to Chase and Brent, who will format them appropriately.
          1. Rojina likes this idea. She recommends using a Google form for members to send their information to Chase and Brent.
          2. The elections section of the email can include more information about voting.
          3. Brent reminds the group that this method only works if every member participates.
          4. SFAC’s website can also be updated.
          5. Chase adds that SFAC is a very efficient body and accomplishes a lot during a year. This is a way to make sure that SFAC’s legacy can continue into future years.
  3. Prep for next week’s guest - TAPS
    1. Chase says that many of last week’s Health Center questions can be appropriate to ask TAPS.
      1. Lucy has already edited last week’s questions for the context of TAPS. She can send additional questions as well.
    2. Questions and topics for discussion
      1. Chase asks how TAPS has restructured the way they operate, in light of COVID-19 and community transmission? If fall operations are still different, how will TAPS modify and account for the amounts of people the campus could have back in the new academic year?
      2. Lucy suggests asking about the human impact aspect.
      3. Brynna asks if they have modified their routes for more efficient travel for students still living on campus or in Santa Cruz?
  4. Adjournment
    1. Brent motions to adjourn, Brynna seconds. No objections, motion passes.

Next meeting: Wednesday, May 6th @ 3:00 pm. TAPS is our confirmed guest.