April 2nd, 2022

In attendance: Brynna Downey, Alvin Ho, Charlene Proo, Gloria Qiu, Lisa Bishop, Maryann Godje, Bara Mudita

Video Conference Access:

Zoom link

Meeting ID: 988 1501 6845

Passcode: 885121

1. Welcome and Introductions
   1. SFAC Community Agreements
2. Approval of Agenda, 4/01/2022 Minutes
   1. No quorum, decision to continue with an informal discussion but have a shorter meeting.
3. Funding Call Deliberations
   1. Ratings worksheet
   2. Discussion
      1. Appropriate uses of SSF and M7 funds
      2. Inappropriate for SSF funds
      3. Proposals 23-43

• Gloria: Great opportunity to bring undergrads and grad together. Undergrads often have trouble finding research opportunities. More people applied than they were able to allocate, so it’s clearly in demand. Looking at people’s suggestions, $15k was average. Didn’t like that the application didn’t have other sources of funding. Seems like a trend among these applications. Would push for $15k.
• Maryann: How did they host events for three years with no other funding sources? They said they had insufficient funds for past years.
• Brynna: It seems like they say insufficient funding because they had more applicants than amount of funding awards.
• Maryann: Budget sheet isn’t the clearest. Other budget sheets include the minimum amount in the sheet.
• Gloria: Agrees that other budget sheets had minima listed.
• Alvin: Agrees.
• Gloria: The min amount of $15k would only be able to support 10 undergraduate students.
• Maryann: Has no more questions
• Alvin asks for suggestions. Gloria unofficially motions to fund $15k and unofficial second from Charlene. No objections. No stipulations.

• Gloria: Really likes Someca programs. Their min ask of ~$5k isn’t that expensive.
• Maryann: The min was for one year.
• Gloria: There was a discussion about only providing up to one year’s worth of funding.
• Alvin and Charlene remember that. Argument was because we didn’t have enough funds.
• Gloria would love to give two years of funding but in the email we sent out if we said only one year, then we should stick to that. Should be fair to all applicants.
• Brynna shares a letter that was sent out to UCSC about our funding call.
• We notice that the letter does not say a limit to years of funding. Charlene and Brynna remember sharing information at funding call workshops that in past years, no proposal has received a second year of funding.
• Gloria is worried about running out of funding. They have also been coming every year, so there should be no problem having them come back next year.
• Gloria makes a suggestive motion to fund $4727. Bara seconds. No objections

• Bara: Put $17k because was a good program. Willing to go down seeing other people’s suggestions.
• Alvin: Put down $13 because running out of money.
• Gloria: Thought it was a good program. They came to us last year as well for funding. EOP’s Black Men’s Initiative also came asking us for money and had a component for the TLL. Giving to that proposal also helps with that one. Put a little higher at $20k but open to $17k.
• Alvin asks for motions. Bara motions to fund $17k, Gloria seconds. No objections.

• Alvin: looking at the summary of people’s opinions, people liked the proposal. Just have to decide what amount. People liked funding tutors.
• Gloria: Huge student impact. Open to all undergraduate students who need writing or tutoring services. Although it is a really big request, they’re asking for funding from all colleges. Observes a trend of proposals who had received stimulus funds and since that run out, they’re coming to us for funding. Is thinking $20,000.
• Brynna: they use the word “tutoring” several times, hopefully not explicitly instruction-related tutoring otherwise we couldn’t fund. They come to us every year asking for a huge ask, so maybe we could reach out to them about setting up their own campus-based fee or seeking permanent central funds.
• Alvin interprets the word “tutoring” as something more like “assistance” than instruction-related. Could be semantics.
• Gloria throws out the number $10-$15k and send a letter recommending a campus-based fee given the frequency and size of their asks. Bara finds $15k fair as does Charlene.
• Gloria motions for $15k no stipulations, Bara seconds. No objections.

• Bara has heard good things about the RLC and liked the idea of doing four grants.
• Gloria likes the idea of $8k and they have a pretty big campus impact. About half of what they’re asking for student stipends.
• Gloria motions for $8k for Seed Innovation Grants or student stipends and Maryann seconds. No objections.
• Discussion about whether to continue. Maryann brings up that even if we make unofficial suggestions, we still have to discuss it in committee. Would be fine with either adjourning now or covering a little bit more ground. Gloria suggests a break and then discussing a few more.
• Lisa: Tutoring becomes instruction-related when it’s attached to a >=4-unit course. Lisa also gave the group an update of how much funds we have left, on the order of $100,000. Group agrees to discuss 5 more proposals this meeting.

• Alvin worries that this program is all or nothing, so might need to fund higher.
• Maryann wonders what the 1.1 staff positions means on their budget sheet. Brynna says that it’s related to the “Full-time equivalent” description of jobs. Lisa says that it could be because they have other fund sources or because the person isn’t working full-time.
• Gloria notes that student parents need more resources than the average student. Worried though that the minimum amount is too high and that it is an all-or-nothing ask. Another proposal that was supported with pandemic relief funds. They need a source of long-term funding for this position.
• Brynna and Charlene are confused about what it means that they are aware of partial funding but state a min of ½ FTE. It is unclear if they would accept partial funding.
• Maryann brings up that we usually fund student employees and this is for a staff member. Would this be a breakaway from that trend. Also notes that we don’t have many funds left.
• Alvin reminds us that last year we did have to go back and trim down our allocations, so we’ll probably do that again. It’s not out of the question to fund staff, we just historically fund student employees more.
• Alvin asks for motions. Gloria motions to fund $20k, Bara seconds, no stipulations. No objections.

• Alvin is okay with anything above $12k, their minimum.
• Gloria also put $12k because anything less would severely limit Crown’s ability to launch the pilot program.
• Charlene motions for $12k, no stipulations, Gloria seconds. No objections

• Alvin notes that they’re not asking for a lot of money.
• Gloria suggested ~ $5000 because that’s how much they got last year and they said it was sufficient to put on the program. They also have enough other funding sources to get the remaining amount.
• Alvin asks for motions, Charlene motions for $3k, no stipulations, Maryann seconds, no objections.

• Alvin suggests a flat $10k, prioritizing staff, student employees. Programming + supplies a little lower priority.
• Maryann notes that there is a wide range of suggested funding amounts from committee members. Would like to at least fund the student employees and stage manager.
• Alvin asks what other line items people would like to fund.
• Gloria notes that the proposal also asks for prioritizing lighting rental. Would be okay with awarding their minimum amount for supplies as well, ~$7000. Full student employees ($2025), $6972 for supply min = $8997.
• Charlene brings up that we’ll likely have to circle back and cut anyway, so proposes half of their supply min. Total of 2025+6972/2 = $5511

• Bara and Alvin agree that $12k is a pretty fair number.
• Bara motions for $12,300, their minimum amount, Charlene seconds, no objections.
• At next meeting, we will take motions to approve suggestions for all proposals discussed today *except* #33 since we want the opinions of the full committee.
• Alvin motions to adjourn, Charlene seconds.

1. Adjournment

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• 2022-2023 Chair & Vice Chair elections, TBD