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Fee Transparency Project
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March 7th, 2024

1:30 – 3:00 pm

AgendaMinutes

Present: Andy, Mel, Lydia, Lisa, Lucy, Trey, Marshall, Gabrielle, Diana, Tanisha, Jhertau

  1. Welcome and Introductions
    1. Members introductions: Name, Pronouns, Year, Major, and Space.
    2. Order: Cowell, Stevenson, Crown, Merrill, Kresge, Porter, Oakes, RCC, C9, JRL, GSA, GSC, SAB, Provost, Jade, Lisa, Lydia, Lucy
  2. Approval of Agenda & Minutes, and motion to approve suggested allocations made on March 3 and Minutes
    1. Mel makes a motion to approve the agenda and minutes, and the minutes and agenda for the March 3rd meeting. Marshall seconds the motion. No objections. Motion carried.
    2. Trey motions to approve the suggested allocations that were discussed at the March 3rd meeting. Mel seconds the motion. There are no objections. Motion carried.
      1. $5000 for #56
      2. $8000 for #57
      3. $13,000 for #58
      4. $10,000 for #59
      5. $8,000 for #60
      6. No funding for proposal #22
      7. No funding for proposal #23
      8. No funding for proposal #27
      9. No funding for proposal #35
  3. Announcements & Updates
    1. Meeting with VC Reiskin and AVC Register of Finance, Operations and Administration on March 7th, from 2:30 to 3:00pm
      1. They will be joining us today to discuss the campus budget.
    2. TAPS response following Director Henderson’s visit with SFAC
      1. Email
        1. Quorum was lost so this item will be voted on at the next meeting.
  4. Funding call
    1. Proposal reading and discussion (time - 4 minutes per proposal):
      1. Tabled proposals (where committee members had questions)
        1. (45) Writing Center
          1. Utilization data
          2. $70,790 is requested
          3. Budget breakdown was not clear.
          4. Committee reviews the utilization data
          5. Requesting funding for 10 student tutors
          6. The committee agrees that, though it is a good resource to have on campus, it seems underutilized.
          7. Trey suggests funding two students for a total of $12,798.
        2. (46) Raices Mentorship and Leadership Program
          1. Stipends for students are not academic/tuition scholarships. Stipends will be paid as department awards through Financial Aid (per Lucy, this is a standard way of issuing awards to students).
        3. (48) Rocket Team
          1. Budget Worksheet
        4. (52) Gender Euphoria: Trans and Nonbinary Wellbeing Outreach and Programming
          1. Budget (needed to be reformatted)
    2. Trimming Process:
      1. Current allocation $982,128 + 12,000 EMH = $994,128. Need to trim $270,390.
      2. Look at lowest “score” from the rating worksheet, reduce or no fund for those proposals
      3. Representatives’ recommendation on particular proposals they want to revisit.
    3. Discussion: 2023-2024 Rating Worksheet
  5. UCSC campus budget cuts
    1. Presentation and Discussion (joined by VC Reiskin and AVC Register)
      1. Pandemic was impactful, lots was done in hiring after the pandemic. Starting to feel pressure from growth. Two things on the expenditure side: costs of university are mostly staff and faculty, and cost of employees has been rising quickly. More staff and faculty, trying to adjust salaries to remain competitive in the market. Benefit costs, i.e. health insurance, going up faster than inflation. Utility costs are also increasing. One time funds at the start of the pandemic, i.e. services, went away when federal funding ended.
      2. On the revenue side, enrollment is flat. Partly due to housing availability on and off campus. Enrollment is not growing, thus tuition revenue not growing (any growth offset by decline in non-resident students).
      3. State as a whole is seeing this as well, expecting a large shortfall.
      4. Core funds are the primary revenue sources to support core mission (instruction, research, some public service). State funds, tuition, NRST, SSF, indirect cost recovery, interest income all affected. Have been using carryforward to fill gaps until 2020. HERFF federal funds were one time.
      5. If we take no action, we are predicted at 96 million short just this year.
      6. Trying to find other sources of revenue. Increases in contract and grant research which helps with overhead dollars. Trying to find other sources.
      7. Marshall, through SCOC, will be helping find a student for the Revenue Generation Committee, co-chaired by VC Bradley-Armstrong.
      8. Expecting revenue increase in SSF since it is part of the cohort based tuition model. New students will pay a little more than current students.
      9. Currently M7 expenses exceed the revenue. Excess revenue at the end of the year goes into the proposals. At this moment, Kimberly doubts there will be much M7 left over. This fund participates in the benefits pool. Investment of these funds into the benefit pool, too much
      10. SSF revenue and expenses are nearly identical, this is by design to keep from going into deficit.
      11. Currently asking units to use position management, pause some hiring.
      12. Marshall notes that sometimes SFAC cannot provide complete funding from proposals, what will be the availability of other grant opportunities for units to fund new programs? Kimberly says that principal officers are thinking in terms of priorities and efficiency. Shifting mentality to using funding on what’s necessary.
        1. The deficit is in core, not gift, funds. Other discretionary sources may be available.
        2. Lucy notes that referenda funded activities will not be impacted. SUA, college governments, will still have projected revenue.
      13. Kimberly encourages students to public dashboards for expenses. A new website will be live soon to talk about the structural deficit with guidance on how to monitor budget.
  6. Other Business
    1. Request from students to attend SFAC meetings and possibly make comments - should we add a public comment to our meetings?
    2. Meeting Timeline (captures our goals for each meeting and prospective topics for meetings)
    3. Member Notes (any members who will be absent from a meeting may add topics for discussion, questions, feedback for items on the agenda, etc. in this running document).
  7. Adjournment
    1. Meeting was adjourned without a motion as there was no quorum.

Upcoming Guests/Topics:.

  1. Student representation for Misc Fee Committee in April.
  2. Presentation on Okanagan Charter (health promoting campus initiative) - Spring Quarter with Director of SHOP, Meg Kobe
  3. Auditing:
    1. Student Media Voice Fee
    2. Student Life Facilities Fee