Fee Transparency Project

Attendees: Chase Hayes, Brent Insua, Fiona Weigant, Isaac Karth, Brynna Downey, May Alvarez, Rojina Bozorgnia, Lisa Bishop, Venkatesh Nagubandi, Alexa Chavez, Veronica Mitry, Rick Gubash

Approval of Agenda and Minutes
1. May motions to approve the agenda, Brent seconds. No objections, motion passes.
2. Rojina motions to approve the minutes, Brent seconds. No objections, motion passes.
Announcements and Updates
1. Response from Athletics & Recreation Business Manager re: request for financial report: My report to the university is due the end of next week, if you can give me an additional week to put together the high level summary I’ll be happy to share with you for the student’s information.
2. Other announcements
  1. No other announcements.
Nominations for 2020-2021 Chair and Vice Chair
1. Chase shares that he is terming out this year, and his and Brent’s positions as Chair and Vice Chair are interim.
2. Chase, Veronica, Venkatesh (?) are terming out / graduating this year.
  1. Rojina asks about SUA officers? Per SFAC bylaws, officers cannot concurrently hold a voting position.
3. Fiona nominates Brynna for Chair.
4. Rojina nominates Brent for Chair.
5. Fiona nominates Isaac for Vice Chair.
6. Chase nominates Venkatesh for Vice Chair.
7. Brynna asks what the time commitment looks like? Chase says it’s more involved for meeting with Lucy. Most of the work is in Fall and Winter quarters, and spring is more flexible for scheduling commitments / agenda items. Sometimes, spring can also involve elections information and referendum outreach.
8. Lydia shares her experience as Chair earlier in the year.
Debrief Housing & Dining Visit
1. Discussion and possible action items
  1. Fiona says it could be helpful to have those units’ budget overview, similar to the request from Athletics and Recreation.
  2. Lisa says that each year in Fall, she does an overview for SFAC showing the previous years’ carryforwards, revenues, expenses, etc. She doesn’t do Housing’s fees specifically, so she does not have access to that information. However, she can present on the Athletics and Rec fees from this past year, including revenues, growth, reductions, and changes from the past two years.
  3. Isaac follows up about requesting documentation from Housing regarding how they are providing assistance for students working from home.
Visit with Disability Resource Center (Joining us at 3:30 pm)
1. Introductions
  1. Chase and the committee welcome Rick Gubash to the space.
2. Questions
  1. Tell us about the impacts of COVID-19 on operations? How have you adjusted operations in response to the pandemic?
    1. DRC has been operating at low disruption for services, they have had remote operations remotely before. Students can email drc@ucsc.edu or do a drop-in Zoom meeting in person.
    2. The employees know the value of their work, especially if they work on the front line.
    3. About 8 student employees are in the role, and another professional staff member has been hired.
    4. Students can get appointments, as well as have continuing appointments. The front-line supervisor is new, and the new service coordinators start in June. They are hiring for the Exam Accommodations Coordinator right now as well.
  2. Tell us about your current service levels, how many students are you serving? Have any students been turned away?
    1. No student has been turned away, they cannot turn away because they are a compliance office. Students might be scheduled a week or two out, however.
    2. They are serving 2,800 students, and it is impacting their staff of about 10. It is significant, as students are expressing trauma, lack of routine and structure, and lack of clarity in remote formats.
    3. Fiona asks if the online format has lead to an increase in requests? How does the DRC support student accommodations in a Zoom class? Rick responds that the CITL resources are being used for inclusivity, especially for designing summer and fall courses. They are looking at the accessibility core, which is student workers who are working to design accessible courses. The impact for students with disabilities is varied, ie students with ADHD have lack of structure and clarity. Students with autism or social anxiety sometimes have improvements with online formats. They work with 12% of the student population, and knowing what works is important for designing classes. The DRC doesn’t always have access to instructors, but they do anticipate issues around ProctorU, notetaking, and Zoom recording allowances.
    4. Isaac asks if Rick has resources for instructors or TAs to implement universal design to anticipate issues for students ahead of time? The DRC is in partnership with CITL, and this is a great resource for design. Design has to start with small pieces. The research institution aspect of UCSC is more difficult to navigate, but CITL has student fellows who help design and inclusive teaching courses. Recording is a major design, otherwise notetaker requests and exam accommodations will increase, which is unsustainable.
    5. Venkatesh asks if any changes are being implemented for summer to help students with online learning? Rick says that CITL has helped to be proactive, and the DRC’s work is deliverable whether they are in person or online. The accessibility core is a group of student workers, meant to help instructors with their course design and delivery. They have access to Canvas courses to make sure that things posted by the instructor, such as scans, can be translated for screen readers.
  3. How have costs increased due to COVID-19? What are your projected revenues losses?
    1. Rick shares that SFAC had previously given the DRC programming funding, and it depends on student employees to create programming. One grad student created a program to make masks for incarcerated individuals. They are also creating space for students through online game nights, though one of the challenges of being remote is outreaching this information appropriately for students. The DRC serves 12%, this is more than other UC campuses.
    2. An accessibility audit was done across the campus, and the survey reported that students were satisfied with the DRC services.
    3. Isaac says that DRC resource lists, particularly for graduate students and accommodations, it would be helpful for graduate students to use.
  4. Short term/long term financial impacts?
  5. Summer session plans
  6. Fiona mentions TA and GSI support. All summer session courses in Education are taught by grad students, and communications are important for summer session prep.
    1. Rick adds that all TAs go through CITL training, and all students will learn about working with universal design and accommodations for students.
    2. Fiona asks if anything specifically caters to Graduate Student Instructors? Rick says he would like a list of GSI’s to specifically reach out to them. Fiona suggests reaching out to Summer Session for these lists. Fiona hopes they can be aware of resources available to them. RIck agrees that universal design should be applied to pre recorded lectures.
  7. Brent asks (on behalf of Elliot) if the process of relaying DRC accommodations to instructors has changed with the remote format? Rick says that there are some privacy challenges, but there have been changes. Instead of the department doing the exam in a physical space, the instructor is given a list of exam accommodations ahead of time. So far, it has been less problematic than during the regular year. There are no scheduling or proctoring issues with this format. Students seem to miss in-person interactions with DRC staff, but survey data shows that students aren’t having many exam issues. They are still forwarding letters to instructors.
Adjournment
1. Isaac motions to adjourn, Brent seconds. No objections, motion passes.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, June 3rd @ 3:00 PM - Last meeting of the year. Guest: Learning Support Services and voting for Chair and Vice Chair.