Meeting Minutes

Monday, March 4, 2019

AGENDA

1. Approve Minutes
2. Field Trip Support
3. Follow-up Review on Course Fees
   • RT030 – Verify department is spending down funds (CLOSE)
   • RT042 -  Requested explanation of administrative error and what funds did the department use in lieu of these funds
   • RT076 – Separate courses and assign appropriate fees to each special topic
   • RT088 – Verify department is spending down fund
   • RT023 – Discuss when Dean Robbins is present
4. Update on Credential Evaluation Fee

Members Present

Arden Childers, Student at Large

John Dunstan, AS Executive Vice President (arrived late)

Christina Gamboa, AS Vice President for Finance and FAC Co-Chair

Stacy Heldman-Holguin, Designee for VP for Student Affairs and FAC Co-Chair

Fernando Mendoza, Student at Large

Elizabeth O’Brien, designee for Joyce Lopes, VP for Admin & Finance

Hollis Robbins, Designee for VP for Academic Affairs

Laura Watt, Chair of the Faculty

Members Absent

Carley Chatterley, AS President

Staff Present

Susan Gutierrez, Director of Financial Aid

Sue Hardisty, Staff Support to FAC

Hayley Ross, University Budget Manager

Hilary C. Smith, Research Services & User Experience Librarian; Student Affairs Committee

Staff Absent

Erik Dickson

Holguin called the meeting to order at 9:06am.

Due to time limits, Holguin skipped item # 1 Approval of the Minutes and moved to #2 to discuss field trip support. She indicated she also wanted to finalize the review of course fees.

2. Field Trip Support

Field trips are an integral component of academic courses. As such, the cost for field trips should be covered by tuition (state fees) rather than through course fees. Co-Chair Holguin asked the committee to decide if they want to:

1. Decline the course fee increase request with the caveat that a broader discussion is needed, particularly at this time when the campus is conducting strategic budget planning;
2. Approve the course fee increase request with the understanding that this puts further financial burden on students in select courses and goes against FAC’s resolve that these fees should be paid from state fees since field trips are an integral academic component of these courses;
3. Approve a partial, temporary fee increase but recommend further discussion to figure out how to support these costs without asking students to pay more for these courses.

    

Gamboa shared that she met with Provost Vollendorf and Vice President Sawyer, and asked what the process was behind the decision to discontinue funding field trips. She was told it was because they discovered there were rollover funds within the school and that other sources of funding had yet to be explored.

The committee feels they are in a catch 22 situation: If they deny the increase request, then the courses have no choice but to reduce the number of field research trips, greatly affecting the quality of the program and properly educating and preparing students for this field of work.  The ability to effectively educate our students suffers and the program’s reputation will suffer. If they approve, then students are unfairly burdened to pay for an integral component of their education which should be covered by their tuition.

Gamboa: Whether funded through IRA or on students taking these courses, none of the students should have to pay extra. It’s a systemic issue and the Associated Students oppose burdening students with costs for curricular components that should be paid for by the state.

Watt: This is just one example of other similar issues in the background. Her department teaches GIS courses which use heavy duty technology and there is a question of who will pay for the annual subscription to use this software ($7-10K). So other similar types of requests may be coming to FAC. She suggested not to approve this fee increase in order to push the larger conversations.

O’Brien: Agrees we can’t just keep saying yes to putting the burden on the students when these larger discussions are needed and certain majors cost so much more than other majors, making this major too expensive for some students who otherwise would go into the major. They will look for similar programs elsewhere where they don’t have such high costs.

Gamboa: Asks the new administration what direction are they wanting to go in this new culture they are building? She expressed that the administration needs to set the standard and everything else will follow.

Watt: This discussion is especially important at this moment when we are developing strategic budgeting plans.

Not having a quorum to put forward a vote, the committee went on to the next agenda item.

3. Review of Course Fees

Robbins announced she needs to leave early and asked if they could discuss RT023 (Primitivo, Studio Blue, STAR, ) first.

Robbins: KSUN is in need of updated equipment to bring the radio station into the 21^st century. KSUN is not moving as part of the Stevenson remodel and therefore will not receive any funding for updating their space.

COMS 385 is for KSUN. There is $11K sitting in reserves. Question is what can funds be spent on? O’Brien read trust form and it can be spent on maintenance and new equipment. KSUN has both IRA and Course Fees and this “alarmed” some committee members. Course fees for KSUN are used for equipment and IRA funds are used for guest speakers. Robbins stated there was a one-time request to update equipment.

Purchases for equipment are supposed to be “used up” each semester but there is a need for non-tangible, as well as non-disposable equipment.

Robbins will provide more clarification on what they are asking for. KSUN is COMS385, RT023.

Course Fees are no longer needed for Primitivo because the mission for the class has changed. COMS 340, RT111 will be spending down funds. (CLOSE account when funds are exhausted)

Although not present for the field trip support discussion, John Dunstan joined the meeting so a vote could be taken on the Geology course fee increase request. Gamboa and Holguin filled him in and Holguin asked for a motion.

Robbins moved to not fund the course fee increase.  7 in favor of not funding, (O’Brien, Gamboa, Dunstan, Childers, Watt, Mendoza, Robbins). Holguin abstained so student members were the majority members voting.

4. Update on Credential Evaluation Fee

The School of Education reached out to Co-Chair Holguin to ask what the process is to increase the Credential Evaluation Fee.  This fee is charged to non-SSU students seeking credential evaluation to determine if an out-of-country or out-of-state program credential meets CA requirements. As a fee-for-service to non-SSU students, it is not subject to additional review from the FAC or President. The department simply needs to update the Trust Fund Agreement to reflect increase in fees.

Approval of February 8, 2019 Minutes

Watt asked that her name be corrected as it was misspelled. No other comments or corrections were made, however there was no motion made to approve the minutes so they will remain in draft until next meeting.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:52am.