Fee Transparency Project

Present: Brynna Downey, Lucy Rojas, Emily Montano, Mathew Sarti, Andy Huynh, Maryann Godje, Gloria Qiu

Welcome and Introductions
1. SFAC Community Agreements
Approval of Agenda and 2/7/2022 Minutes
1. Will approve agenda and minutes until next meeting due to not meeting quorum
Announcements & Updates
1. Extra Winter Meeting Times
  1. Sundays 2-3pm
  2. Tuesdays 7-8pm
  3. Extending Monday meetings until 3:30
2. Other announcements
Funding Call Deliberations
1. Ratings worksheet
2. Discussion
  1. Appropriate uses of SSF and M7 funds
  2. Inappropriate for SSF funds
  3. Plan of action
  4. Proposals 1-22 (continued)
    1. #13: Breaking barriers to Graduate School
      1. Mathew mentions that in the previous funding call they requested a different amount and comments how it makes sense that they need funding and agrees with the $5,000 max amount
      2. Gloria suggests $5,000 unofficial suggestion

Matthew unofficially agrees

Andy agrees with Mathew since it's a great concept but not really want to fund their max, but we can add more to the $5000

- - - 1. Gloria asks if they would talk about the rationale now to have something to write in when mentioning or say that for the motion itself?
      2. Andy asked if they have any additional funding from other sources?

Brynna answers they have no other sources from this time

- - - 1. Gloria comments although it's a great initiative to help break down barriers to go to grad school, thought the overall proposal was weak and did not specify if the amount of funding was enough for their program
    1. #8: METX Peer Mentor Program
      1. Mathew thinks we all seem to be in agreement with the $4,200 amount and student stipend seems to be our most funded thing
      2. Brynna and Gloria agree that student employment comes first
      3. Gloria unofficially suggests $4,200, Maryann unofficially seconds, no objects
    2. #15: Arts Professional Pathways
      1. Andy cannot see the budget sheet
      2. Mathew comments if we make that decision now we have to be consistent for it and it would be morally wrong to give this one the boot.
      3. Clear to Brynna they were asking $3000 per student
      4. Lucy comments how we granted them a one time exception and gave them one more year
      5. Brynna says anything we give them this year would be used in Summer 2023 and seems like they give a flat stipend to students for their summer internship. Not exactly clear if they are using the $45,000
      6. Gloria comments how judging from question 7, it seems they are spending on average $15,000 a year and that is not reflective of their requested amount which is $50,000 for one year only. If we still consider their probably, she would suggest anywhere between 10-15k

Makes sense to Mathew and Andy is okay with that range

- - 1. #2: Graduate Student Professional Development
      1. Gloria comments how she agrees with $5,000 with no stipulations. They already received $11k from other sources of funding and wanted to fund parts that would not be covered from other sources of funding. Wanted to put no stipulations in case they wanted to use that funding for other things.
      2. Mathew says it was hard because there were no student stipends going on and thinks the 5k is a fair alternative.
      3. Andy comments how he wants to prioritize their programming cost since they put first priority for it
      4. Gloria califys how she wanted to fung them $25k for others and did not write a note for this. See’s they are requetist for $16k and open to funding them more
      5. Andy comments how they didn’t indicate their minimum act so he does not know how much to fund them so that it is suffice to run the program and it is like all or nothing
      6. Maryann suggests allocating $0 and feels like this is an all or nothing situation and they did not put any minimums. Not a third of the way down with a limited budget and would say $0
      7. Gloria is uncomfortable with giving them $0 and treating them differently because it is in the bottom of the proposal and since we don’t have enough money left to allocate this proposal
      8. Maryann would be okay with compromising and would reiterate how she would give them funding but because these are the lower ranked proposals she takes into account people’s opinions and they are not getting a higher rating vs other ones and there is reasoning behind that. 50 and below ranked should be taken into account
      9. Andy comments how initially thought 5k as well but not really sure whether we should lower or not
      10. Brynna suggests to leave this open for the full committee to discuss tomorrow
    2. #21: Peer to Peer Mentorship in the EEB Dept.
      1. Brynna comments how they minimum is 3,670
      2. Mathew comments how they are both similar, METX, background wise and are both still different amounts. Suggests to do their minimum. Could be more cutthroat for proposals depending on the situation
      3. Gloria would like to unofficially suggest the minimum amount with no stipulations and want to give more priority for student stipends. If funded this amount would like to give no stipulations to have more freedom with the money. Andy unofficially seconds
    3. #18: Mammalian Diversity Surveys in the Monterey Bay
      1. Brynna comments how the average person assigned them $12,000 with a big range from 7-18k
      2. Mathew comments using their budget sheet, going off of that aut should be our minimum and what should we consider what is more important. Suggests to minum start out with 44 and make a note that we can cut form the assistant directors fund
      3. Andy comments they prioritize the staff salary but based from all of our allocations, we fund more student stipends than the staff
      4. Lucy asks what this program is and if the student is going to do research that is appropriate. Is unsure if funding the staff position if it is not a student service role. It is important to keep in mind if cutting something later on.
      5. Andy comments that it would be more consistent with the other programs
      6. Maryann unofficially suggest $4400 for student stipends, Mathew unofficially seconds
      7. Maryann would like to open to what non group members have to say.
    4. #1: Research for the Americas
      1. Gloria raises concern that the proposal is to fund staff positions and there are no student related direct investments. Also, this seems like an all or nothing type of proposal because they are not able to do anything with partial funding.

Adjournment
1. Meeting ends at 3:08 pm.

Upcoming Guests/Topics:

Summer Campus-Based Fee Levels (February 21st and 28th)
Elimination of CBF Policy (Lisa and Diane Lallemand)
DSAS Space Initiative (Lucy)
SUGB, Student Union Governance Board