January 22nd, 2018

Student Fee Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes

January 22, 2018

Present: Suini Torres, Amanda Kazden, Kiryl Karpiuk, Ian Gregorio, Cathy Thomas, Alan Christy, John Steele, Lucy Rojas, Lisa Bishop, Ashley John, Gina Tu, Aaron Manzano, Alice Malmberg, Bryna Haugen, Sabina Wildman, Juliana Nzongo

1. Approval of Agenda, Minutes, Announcements

a. Bryan motions to approve the agenda. Gina seconds the motion. There are no

objections and the motion carries.

b. Aaron motions to approve the minutes for the December 4th and January 8th minutes

c. CSF Debrief

i. Meeting occurred in Irvine. Quorum was not achieved on Friday night so there was a lot of discussion. One of the topics was preparing for the next CSF meeting in Oakland in April, including establishing goals.

ii. On Saturday, there was a discussion on whether CSF should establish a position

on the proposed tuition increases that the Regents will be discussing this week. Suini will forward the letter that was finalized the CSF Chair. The position is a request to the Regents to postpone the vote to the March meeting at UCLA, where more students will be able to participate in public comment. At the bottom of the letter, there is a list of who the letter is being sent to. Alice shares that she and Jessica will be at the Regents meeting this week and will speak during public comment; let Alice know if there is anything specific that you would like her to speak on.

iii.Kiryl shares that he and Amanda are the chairs of the best practices committee;

it was a goal to gather best practices from each campus and then put out recommendations. The committee has completed data collection and this quarter will be working on recommendations.

iv. There was discussion on changing the stipends for CSF chair and vice chair that

would change the dues that we pay to UCSA for CSF. There is discrepancy between each campus and CSF on stipends paid to student participants.

d. Announcements

i. Today, there is a kickoff event for the free higher education initiative. 3pm at

McHenry Library 0345.

2. Fee Referendum Presentations

a. Student Testing Materials Fee

i. SUA Vice President for Academic Affairs is the author of the Student Testing

Materials Fees

ii. Last fall, her office launched a pilot that distributed 11,000 scantrons. There

was a lot of interest in the program.

iii.Distribution process: revenue would come through to the SUA VPA’s budget and

then working with faculty, testing materials would be distributed.

iv. The fee would alleviate the need for students to purchase materials. This is a

convenience to students.

v. Sabina asks whether the Bookstore has been notified of the fee. Jessica says that they probably have some idea based on the pilot. Lucy states that as a courtesy she will share a copy of the language with the Bookstore Director.

vi.Bryna explains that she knows students who have been impacted by forgetting a blue book. This is a really good idea. Jessica explains that her intention is that any extra materials would remain with departments for future distribution.

vii.Ashley asks how were the books procured if the Bookstore has a contract? Jessica states if the fee passes she will pursue a contract with the supplier.

viii.Lisa asks whether increases to costs of blue books have been accounted for, for

future cost increases. Jessica says no, but she will look into it.

ix.Alan asks about feedback from faculty. Jessica said that feedback from

professors has been very helpful.

x. Amanda asks how will the program ascertain the number of blue books that are

distributed, to account for different usage levels.

xi.Lucy asks about institutionalizing the program within SUA so that future VPA’s are

required to maintain the program.

xii.Lisa adds that the referendum could also include language that addresses how to eliminate the fee should the testing materials process change, become obsolete, etc.

xiii.Sabina suggests a study on blue books to determine a reasonable number of blue books to purchase each year. Sabina asks whether there is a sunset; Jessica responds that she does want to a sunset and/or a review process.

xiv.Gina ask s a clarifying question about the dates associated with RTA – Lucy/

Jessica will clarify.

b. Graduate Student Fee Increase

i. Adrienne Ricker is the Co-President of the Graduate Student Association

ii. Based on the recommendation of last year’s executive board, this year’s board is

pursuing an increase to the Graduate Student Fee Increase.

iii.Current fee is $14.50 per student, per quarter, enacted in 2007 (Measure 33). There was an attempt to increase the fee in 2011; there was a majority yes vote, but the initiative did not establish the minimum voting threshold.

iv. GSA has experienced a significant increase in travel grant requests during the last few years. The GSA had to approach Grad Student Commons and Grad Division to secure additional funding to cover requests.

v. The proposed fee increase is $5.50, for a total of $20.00 per student, per

quarter.

vi.The fee increase is especially important this year, because the travel grant

program has been reorganized. Previously, the program was a reimbursement program. Moving forward, the program will be offered through direct payment to grad students and students will be able to use the funds for travel, books, conferences, relocation, etc. GSA anticipates there will be increased interest in applying for the program.

vii.The budget is very simple, the increase will go into the GSA general budget and the council establishes and approves the budget every year. The GSA will have the flexibility to adjust spending year to year.

viii.Adrienne directs SFAC to the budget document that she created which reflects a

comparison of other UCs GSA budgets.

ix.Sabina asks what is a travel grant? Adrienne says that in the past travel grants have been given to students to present at conferences. The new program will allow students to request funds for travel to present research also. Currently, many grad student pay out of pocket for conference and research participation.

x. What are relocation fees? Relocation are costs associated with graduate

students moving to Santa Cruz.

xi.Juliana shares that because GSA spends so much on travel grants, there are

limited funds for helping grad students with other types of expenses.

xii.Bryana says that as an undergraduate, she doesn’t feel as though she has a voice in this program, but based on what she hears, it sounds like funds will be put right back into the hands of graduate students and she doesn’t see any reason for not supporting this fee increase.

xiii.Cathy states that funds for professional networking are essential. Cathy adds

that offering relocation is key, especially for international students.

c. Lucy explains that she hopes to hear from SFAC with official opinion by February 5th.

Suini asks everyone to discuss with their spaces and be ready to discuss at next week’s meeting.

3. Funding Proposal Process Check In

a. Suini asks how the process is going?

b. Suini explains that Ben Leeds Carson, Kresge Provost, contacted her on January 10th to ask if Kresge could submit a late proposal to SFAC to fund a food pantry at Kresge College. Suini shares that she responded and said she would bring it to the committee for a vote, on whether to accept a late proposal.

i. Sabina responds that the Kresge Food Co-Op is unique and is student initiated. It

would be important to have a food pantry at that location.

ii. Ian says that speaking on behalf of his constituents, they would really like to see

a food pantry in their location given that Kresge is all apartments.

iii.Bryna says that we really need more food resources on the West Side of campus.

There would be material benefit to students.

iv. Ashley says we could accept the proposal and not prioritize – as we stated groups

who didn’t do consultation meeting.

v. Aaron says that we shouldn’t consider the proposal because it is so late, and also

there has been a lack of response to communications. It doesn’t reflect our process. Gina agrees and states that if we do accept, the proposal should be given lowest priority.

vi.Sabina states that if SFAC deems this issue important,

vii.Cathy would like to learn more about food insecurity issues on campus; we can

invite FSWG to future meeting. Invite Tim Galarneau and Nancy Yang to join us.

viii.Bryna asks about West Side locations for food pantries.

ix.Sabina says that the issue will be further pronounced next year when meal plans

in the apartments are not required.

x. Sabina motions to accept the proposal and give it lower priority. Bryna seconds

the motion.

1. Aaron objects to the motion given that we have not received the

proposal. Cathy says that we need to provide a deadline so we can meet our January 25th evaluation deadline.

2. Cathy moves to amend Sabina’s motion, to establish the proposal as

lowest priority if the proposal is submitted by 11:59 pm on January 23rd. Ashley seconds the motion. There are no objections. Therefore, the new motion is: accept the proposal with lowest priority, if it’s submitted by 11:59 pm on January 23rd.

3. Vote on motion: Yes- 9. No-0. Abstention-0. Motion passes.

4. Regents Proposal on Fee Increases

a. Suini asks whether SFAC would like to establish a statement on the Regents proposal to increase fees. Sabina suggests that the committee that is meeting today from 3-5pm could develop a statement that SFAC could review and support. Gina responds that she wouldn’t feel comfortable having another group write a statement on SFAC’s behalf. Sabina clarifies that wasn’t her intention. Suini suggests we could decide to support CSF’s statement.

5. Adjournment

a. Gina motions to adjourn. Ian seconds the motion. Motion carries.