SFAC Meeting

Friday, March 6, 2020

4:00-5:00pm

via Zoom

MINUTES

SFAC Members:

• Arden Childers, AS Vice President for Finance; SFAC Co-Chair
• Katryna Johnson, AS Senator for Sustainability;
• Melissa Ann Kadar, Exec VP of AS;
• Elias Lopez, Designee for VP for Student Affairs, and SFAC Co-Chair;
• Lisette Rico Caballero, AS Senator for Undeclared; (replacing Emily Miller, AS VP for External Affairs)
• Leonel “Leo” Navarro, AS Senator for Business and Econ and designee for AS President;
• Elizabeth O’Brien, as designee for Joyce Lopes, VP for Admin. & Finance; 
• Dr. Hollis Robbins, Dean, School of Arts & Humanities as designee for Provost, VP for Academic Affairs;
• Laura Watt, Chair of the Faculty; (absent)
• Hilary C. Smith, Research Services & User Experience Librarian; Student Affairs Committee Rep (absent)

Non-Voting SFAC Members:

• Hayley Avery, Budget Manager, University Budget and Planning (absent)
• Erik Dickson, Executive Director, Associated Students;
• David Crozier, Director of Financial Aid;
• Sue Hardisty, Administrative Assistant, VP for Student Affairs Office
• Laura Monje-Paulson, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs

Meeting commenced at 4:06pm by Arden Childers, Co-Chair of SFAC.

Agenda

1. Approve Minutes of Feb. 28, 2020

Childers called for changes or additions to the minutes; hearing none, minutes were unanimously approved.

2. Fee Task Force Recommendations (vote)

Members were asked to vote on each of the following general recommendations from the Mandatory Fee Task Force.    

General Recommendations:

1. Consider an increased focus on strategic utilization of funds. This includes a five-year business plan, budget and reserve plan by 6/30/20.

Vote: All in favor to accept recommendation as written, 0 opposed, 0 abstained

2. Formalize and/or strengthen student governance structures of mandatory fee programs. Each fee program should be reporting at least annually to a student governance structure for financial and programmatic review. Specifically Student Union, IRA above the line programs, etc. Without a strong student governance structure there isn’t a communication structure to see what students’ priorities are.

A member asked what constituted a Student Governance Structure. Examples provided included SFAC, IRA Subcommittee and Student Health Advisory Committee.

      Vote: All in favor to accept recommendation as written, 0 opposed, 0 abstained

3. Explore opportunities to shift expenses back to the Operating Fund when appropriate. The Task Force recommends that the campus utilize strategic budgeting principles to prioritize funding campus priorities listed to reduce the burden on student fees when funds may be available.

Vote: All in favor to accept recommendation as written, 0 opposed, 0 abstained

4. Maintain the annual CPI-based increase. Recommendation is to keep this in place because the alternative could be the need to shift increased costs to other funding sources or to reduce services.

Discussion ensued about whether the CPI was the most appropriate index to use, or if it needed to be applied to ALL mandatory fees including fees for buildings that typically have fixed and perhaps even declining costs year after year. Concern was expressed about the fact that SSU has nearly the highest student fees in the system and an automatic CPI does little to help keep fees down. Crozier suggested Financial Services provide to SFAC an annual report of the CPI costs for each fee and how it compares to similar fees at similar sized campuses. Ultimately, the committee decided to add the following language to this recommendation:

“Annually review Category II fee status and potential CPI growth in relation to the other CSU campuses.” After reviewing this report, SFAC could then make a recommendation to the President to reduce certain CPI fees if it is determined that costs did not increase to support applying the CPI.

Vote to keep CPI and add above language in quotes: All in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstained

5. There should be an increased focus on strategic communication to students regarding the use of mandatory fees. The Task Force recommends a conscientious effort to ensure that students understand how the activities taking place by mandatory fee funded programs are promoting access, equity, inclusion and diversity and delivering outcomes that meet student priorities.

Robbins explained that “conscientious effort” means not just reporting out on how fees are used but also requiring a communication plan to raise the level of student knowledge about where their fees go and how they benefit from them. Lisset suggested one way to accomplish this would be to provide a presentation to Associated Students. O’Brien said the Fees Schedule on the website does explain where the fees go but added that she felt they could do better to communicate this to students. Lopez said this recommendation pertained more to IRA programs and shared that the IRA subcommittee has incorporated assessment into the program funding process so they could report on how these programs are promoting access, equity, inclusion and diversity and delivering outcomes that meet student priorities.

Vote: All in favor to accept recommendation as written, 0 opposed, 0 abstained

Fee Specific Recommendations:

Childers suggested the committee do a blanket vote on all fee specific recommendations. Here is a summary of those recommendations:

Counseling and Psychological Services Fee

• Not adequately funded to provide level of service campus needs so students could consider a fee increase
• Before a potential fee increase, create a five-year budget plan, review opportunities for efficiency and cost savings, and dual model of funding through operating fund

Student Health Center Services Fee

• Five year capital renewal and maintenance and repair plans
• Recommends SHC work with the Student Health Advisory Council to strengthen the advisory and governance structures of the SHAC to provide advisory support to the SHC

Student Health Center Facilities Fee

• Partner with Facilities to create five-year maintenance and capital renewal plan for the SHC building
• As part of SHC five-year review and reserve plan, the SHC determines the appropriate level of need for the SHC Facility Fee
• Consider a referendum to decrease the SHC Facilities Fee and increase the SHC Operations fee in equal amounts

Associated Students Fee

• Maintain a fiscally conservative approach to multi-year financial planning and consider aligning programmatic offerings with the strategic priorities of the campus
• Explore options over the long-term for alternative modes of funding for the leadership, tutorial and basic needs programs that are currently funded by AS fees.

Student Union Fee (SUF)

• Programs and structures are spread out over different areas
• Consolidate oversight into single governing body
• Consider naming and branding of fee on campus. CSU naming convention is “Student Union” but we could change it to something that makes more sense
• Regular review of the modes of funding for programs funded by the SUF to determine if alternative or additional funding sources would be appropriate
• Create a strategic reserves plan including non-routine and maintenance schedules for the building funded under the fee (Rec Center, Student Center building and operations, International Hall, Children’s School) SUF also funds the HUB and Student Involvement Programming

Instructionally Related Activities Fee

• All permanently-funded programs should resume annual reporting to the IRA Subcommittee
• The IRA Subcommittee, SFAC and Cabinet should seek clarity on which entity holds primary financial responsibility to keep the IRA permanently-funded (above the line) programs financially solvent.

Consolidated Services Fee (Commencement, Student Records, Seawolf Services)

• Funds are collected in Operating Fund. We have more funding to allocate than we have budgeted for
• Recommends that the three programs that are funding from this fee each present to SFAC on a 3-year cycle, beginning in 2020-2021 to request a portion of the new net revenue that is available from the Consolidated Services Fee as identified by the University Budget and Planning Office

The IRA recommendation asks SFAC to take action before this year end. Kadar feels this is doable and will make it a priority.

Vote on ALL fee specific recommendations: All in favor to accept recommendations as written, 0 opposed, 0 abstained

Meeting concluded at 4:52pm.

Minutes submitted by Sue Hardisty.