Fee Transparency Project

Present: Ashley John, Adam Selcov, Regina Gomez, Chase Hayes, Lydia Jenkins-Sleczkowski, Derek DeMarco, Lisa Bishop, Ian Gregorio, Elliot Lewis, Lucy Rojas, Venkatesh Nagubandi, Veronica Mitry, Juliana Nzongo, Vignesh Iyer

Approval of Agenda, Minutes, Announcements

a. Approval of Agenda

Lydia motions to approve the agenda; Ian seconds. Motion passes.

b. Approval of Minutes

Regina motions to approve the minutes; Elliot seconds the motion. Motion passes.

c. Introductions d. Announcements

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CSF: Ashley shares that we hosted the CSF meeting this past weekend. We received many compliments on hosting, meals, and the beauty of the campus. Agenda items included approval of next year’s budget, updates to by-laws, and election of next year’s chair. There will be another meeting this summer, likely at UC Riverside. Office Hours - please update the the form asap with your spring quarter office hours. Adam proposes an event for spring quarter to highlight campus elections, which could take the place of some office hours requirements Lucy explains that all four of the proposed campus based fees achieved the required sponsorship for the ballot. Now the Chancellor must approve what’s put on the ballot.

Funding Call - Available funds

a. Available balance for funding call: $991,877.24

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Includes Women of Color difference that was put back in Does not include funding for Japanese Student Association (that was allocated from SFAC’s operating fund) Includes a discrepancy in last year’s funding notifications (detected after Lucy, Lisa, and Denise conducted an audit of last year’s funding allocations). Lucy explains that she made an error on the funding allocation letters, and there were a few groups that were allocated funding but did not receive notification. Corrective action will be taken to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

Adam motions to allow the groups to use the funds next year if

necessary. Regina seconds the motion. No objections.

b. Need to decide whether to apply a reserve to the Buy Back 19900 funds

($356,000)

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Adam suggests that we hold off until we finish the funding deliberations. If we go over the available funding, we should give ourselves flexibility. Adam suggests that we think about holding the $356,000 for next year since we know we will have a smaller allocation this year. Chase agrees that we should wait on the discussion until we finish deliberations. Chase asks how the buy bay funds should be used. Adam motions to table discussion until we are finished with deliberations; Chase seconds the motion. No objections.

c. Need to decide whether the 15% reserve is applied to Measure 7 and SSF

separately, or from one source.

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Lisa explains that 15% of the SSF is $75,000, and 15% of the M7 is $98,909.00 for a total of $173,909 Chase motions to apply the total 15% of the reserve for both to the SSF. Adam seconds the motion. No objections.

Funding Proposal

a. #50 - This was tabled from the last meeting. We followed up with the author for

more information. It was clarified that the funding will be used for a stipend for the grad student and small stipend for the undergrads (plus 2-units).

Adam suggests that we not fund the entire proposal. He says that the van and conference travel should be a bundle. Adam is not opposed to funding this. Adam $4000 for summer graduates, $4000 for summer undergrads, plus the $6000 for the undergrad stipends for two quarters.

Discussion: seems like it’s 2 units per course.
Adam motions to fund $11,600 for $4000 for 2019 summer

graduate student researcher, $4000 for student undergraduate researcher, $3600 van participation. Julian seconds the motion. No objections.

b. #1 - Mental Health First Aid Course

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This was tabled. Ashley followed up for more information on student impact. There were questions on how many students would be impacted. We couldn’t see some of the figures that were provided. Response to question explained that the invitation for this program is not broadly made to students, but there are invitations through campus departments such as EOP, Dean of Students, Academic Advisers, etc. Trainees include RAs. Adam says that if the question about RAs was not answered directly, than it’s possible that RAs are the main audience for the training. Ashley says that the response to the email says that 2,000 students have been certified and they hope to continue certifying 400 per year. Lucy suggests that if there is concern about who the course is offered to, we could suggest that funding be available for opening up spots to students at-large. Viggy agrees with this suggestion; Viggy expresses interest in funding programs like this as an extension of CAPS.

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Adam says that this tows the line between changing a requestor’s plan. Adam is not super in favor of stipulations that were not in the proposal. Ashley says that we could ask that outreach be increased to reach groups such as the Resource Centers. Adam says that if we fund $6,000 we could note our concern at the limited amount of advertising, but it would be up to them whether they did it. Adam motions to fund $3000 with the comment that we would love to see more outreach to organizations such as Resource Centers. Viggy seconds the motion. No objections.

c. #15 Grand Slam 2020 Support. Amount Requested $20,000

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Adam explains that his recollection is that this program is a mandatory program of UCOP and includes cash prizes. Lydia says that the budget reflects that much of the expenses would be for prize money and outside facilitators. Lydia says that she would be comfortable only funding food. Juliana says that she would be fine funding the workshop. Juliana says that GSA has funding for graduate student events. Juliana motions to fund the workshop $6,276.30 - the facilitators and the food. There is no second. Motion fails. Regina says that the expenses are based on fall 2018 costs. There are discrepancies between what is requested and the documents that are presented. Regina would be fine funding the workshop. Chase and Lydia agree Regina motions to allocate $3,200 for outside professional development facilitators for the workshops. Lydia seconds the motion.

d. #32 Game Go $25,000

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Adam says that this is funding for five teams @ $5,000 per team. We could fund any number of teams, from 1 to 5. In his initial notes, he had thought about funding 3 teams. Elliot asks whether the number of teams is up to us? Ashley says it depends, but it seems as though they are asking for a specific amount to fund a team. Adam says that we don’t know if they are relying only on our funding. We don’t know how many teams they will have, because they could have other funding. Lydia agrees that if we don’t fund the entire proposal, it doesn’t meet that the program may not be funded elsewhere. Lydia asks whether we want to add stipulations to the funding. Chase says that he does not disagree with any of the proposed expenses. Adam motions for two teams at $10,000 with a clarification that we expect the funds are being administered by the Division, and not issued as grant directly to students. Chase seconds the motion.

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Return to discussion: this group received $20,000 at Giving Day. Adam would like to amend his motion to allocate $5,000 instead of $10,000. Elliot seconds the motion. No objections.

e. #58 SWANA Programs Intern $16,500

Lydia motions to fund one year of the program at $8,100 programming and student interns. Regina seconds the motion. No objections.

f. #2 Transit Special Events $76,578

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Adam confirms that we are able to fund TAPS. Discussion regarding whether these are extra services? Ashley recalls from the orientation that these costs are likely covered and part of the deficit. Adam says that if we don’t fund one of these things, it will likely still happen. Adam suggests picking one of the three to fund, perhaps commencement and/or Boardwalk Frolic. Regina says that in the proposal it states that TAPS may not be able to provide these services if they do not have new funding. Regina agrees that TAPS is already asking for so much in terms of the referendum. Elliot adds that it’s not our responsibility to pay for this. We already pay tuition, and we pay fees for TAPS. It shouldn’t be our job to pay for this. It’s not fair to be put in this position, that services will be limited if we don’t pay. Ashley adds that the referenda is on the ballot this year, it doesn’t seem right to “pay twice” for services. Juliana says that TAPS considers these events as special events and will likely pay. Viggy says that there may be other options. Juliana agrees that it seems wrong to ask students to pay for TAPS services multiple times. Viggy says that it seems like the request is made in bad faith, but the proposal does say they could recuperate the costs through increasing costs. Should we be concerned about the optics of SFAC not funding this? Ashley says that TAPS likely has needed this funding in the past but hasn’t asked for it. Chase says that he can see how TAPS is categorizing the costs as special events. Move-in and commencement are critical. He thinks that move-in should be funded in another way; and commencements costs should be covered by the colleges (especially if College Government Fee increase passes). Chase thinks it would be good to fund for Boardwalk Frolic. Lydia says that if we decide to fund the Frolic, we should keep in mind who attends, mostly first year and second year. Adam agrees that commencement and Move-in should be funded elsewhere. Motions to fund $5,000 for the Boardwalk Frolic. Juliana seconds the motion. Regina comments that the bus services for move-in

are provided for family members. Ashley agrees. Lydia has also worked move-in and agrees. Viggy reminds us that there are enrollment growth targets so we have more students coming in. No objections.

g. #53 Engaging Community Studies $8,190

Lydia says that the proposal has multiple scenarios. She is supportive of the student staff position, and not the honorarium. Adam motions to fund $3,340, which corresponds to scenario #3. Chase seconds the motion. No objections. h. #5 Research for the Americas… $106,574

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Adam says that when he originally read the proposal, he was confused about the position as most of the proposal talked about the proposal. The proposal was about the organization, and didn’t explain so much about what the position will be contributing. Lydia says that it looks like the position supports the entire organization. Adam motions to fund $52,500. Second by Regina. No objections.

#8 Graduate Orientation $18,000

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Adam says that it sounds like many of things that are being requested could be considered non-essential. Regina is supportive of funding the event production costs. Adam motions to fund $7,550 to fund Title IX coffee and check in, learning tech for Title IX, learning tech resource fair, resource fair equipment rental, event parking, zero waste events, and event supplies. No seconds

Motion fails

Juliana says that she would consider funding all of catering because it is an all day event for the graduate students and that she’s not sure where else they would be able to get money from

v. Motion by Adam to earmark $13,254 to fund catering, Title IX coffee and

check in, learning tech for Title IX, learning tech resource fair, resource fair equipment rental, event parking, zero waste events, and event supplies. Second by Julianna. No objections.

j. Adam motions to extend the meeting by 5 minutes because the committee was

close to coming to a decision on #8. Second by Regina. No objections.

Adjournment

a. Motion by Lydia to adjourn, seconded by Adam.