Meeting Minutes

Friday, April 5, 2019

Members Present

Arden Childers, Student at Large

John Dunstan, AS Executive Vice President

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

Members Absent

Carley Chatterley, AS President

Laura Watt, Chair of the Faculty

Staff Present

Susan Gutierrez, Director of Financial Aid

Sue Hardisty, Staff Support to FAC

Hayley Ross Avery, 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 4:07pm.

AGENDA

1. Approve Minutes of March 15, 2019
2. Recommendations to President
3. Review Course Fee Review Policy

 

1. Approve minutes of March 15, 2019

The minutes were provided to the committee via email prior to the meeting.  Dunstan moved to approve the March 15, 2019 minutes and Childers seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously with no changes.

2. Recommendations to President

Dr. Sakaki has asked that the AS President and CFO to sign off on Decision Memos from the Fee Advisory Committee. Two memos will be routed to the President’s Office. One is about FAC declining the Geology course fee increase request and the other is to recommend approval of the IRA awards.

3. Review Course Fee Review Policy

Holguin asked the committee to review the Course Fee Review policy that was established last summer and to discuss whether any changes to the policy are needed.

Gamboa asked about the March 1 deadline for completion of audits. Holguin agreed that timelines needed to be reviewed and perhaps revised.

Childers wondered if the audit process included a mechanism for identifying high course fees and whether those fees were being spent appropriately or whether they were being used for components of a course that are required as part of the curriculum for the course, similar to the Geology course fees. Dunstan suggested FAC develop some sort of guiding principles for course fees/requests that are high but are for things which are requirements of the course and should be paid by the university rather than students.

The committee also discussed the need to watch for changes in campus policies to see if those changes impact current policy and practice regarding course fees.

The committee discussed moving the audit deadline from March 1 to Nov. 1 to give departments more time to make corrections, update trust agreements, and to spend down high balances prior to the end of the fiscal year. Review sets of course fees each year so we don’t get too far behind in this audit process.

Decision

Summer Subcommittee: Co-chairs and finance group (Liz, Hayley) will meet to identify next set of course fees that need review.

They will send their findings to department Administrative Coordinators and copy the deans so the department can track down the faculty for explanations to any questions that come up.

Over time the audit process should get simpler as faculty are made aware of the requirements and that FAC will be auditing their fund(s).

Holguin asked if another meeting was needed. Consensus was no.

Holguin closed the meeting by telling members that once she received the approval email from the President, she would forward it to the committee, and then she thanked the committee for their work.

Meeting adjourned at approximately 4:35pm.

Minutes submitted by Sue Hardisty.