Fee Transparency Project

Video Conference Access: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/959551699

Attendees: Chase Hayes, Brent Insua, Lisa Bishop, Lydia Jenkins-Sleczkowski, Lucy Rojas, Venkatesh Nagubandi, Alexa Chavez, Brynna Downey, Isaac Karth, Yuhao Chen, Fiona Weigant, Sue Carter

Approval of Agenda and Minutes
1. Venkatesh motions to approve the agenda, Brent seconds. No objections, motion passes.
2. Brent motions to approve the minutes, Venkatesh seconds. No objections, motion passes.
3. Chase thanks everyone for coming and making time to join with everything going on.
Announcements and Updates
1. Announcements
  1. Welcome back Lydia (Lucy’s item)
    1. Lucy welcomes everyone back to the space.
    2. Lydia graduated at the end of winter, but is staying employed with Lucy’s office. She will be attending SFAC’s meetings now as a nonvoting student staff member and taking meeting minutes.
  2. Spring Quarter Regular Meeting Time
    1. Chase shares that the committee has a busy quarter planned and that they are looking to establish a more permanent meeting time.
    2. Lucy reminds the group that everyone is still establishing a new routine and with the COVID-19 scheduling changes, a meeting will likely be finalized soon.
    3. Chase will likely be sending out a new poll for a more permanent meeting time.
2. CSF
  1. CSF Spring Meeting
    1. The UCOP/CSF meeting will be today at 3pm. Both the regular spring meetings and the Friday UCOP meeting will be via Zoom. Chase can send the link if anyone is interested in attending.
    2. The UCOP meeting will likely be addressing the COVID situation.
COVID-19 Impacts
1. Discussion
  1. Chase shares that everything will stay on Zoom.
  2. Chase updates that allocations from this year and last year will be impacted from COVID-19.
  3. Lucy adds that the 2018-19 awardees are impacted. For example, student groups’ travel was cancelled due to university policy for nonessential travel (late-Winter) and this quarter due to the Governor's order of shelter in place. Some student groups had to cancel their activity. Others may have delays in implementing because of the impact in operations. Other units may have issues with hiring now that offices are remotely operating. There are already extension requests.
  4. As a committee, SFAC may want to proactively discuss ideas and pass a resolution as a group regarding funding allocations. Lucy suggests recommending parameters for all awardees in response to the COVID-19 situation.
    1. Some groups have already been reimbursed because they have already implemented their programs.
    2. SFAC may want to proactively communicate via funding letter about impacts and options.
  5. Chase mentions that prior year exceptions can be on a case-by-case basis or an overall extension. Chase thinks a fiscal year extension may be more appropriate. These are the groups that normally would need to request the reimbursement by June 1, 2020.
    1. Venkatesh expects many awardees have already completed their travel. Some of these events have already been rescheduled, and could go on a case by case basis. Starting new programs needs more time, and does not necessarily relate to travel or cancelled events.
    2. Isaac asks if there are any complications from giving these extensions? Lucy clarifies that Denise would still be able to determine available funding. In the case of a blanket extension, Lucy advises discussing the exact use of funds, and ensuring that funds are still used how they were allocated by the committee last year. What will now be funded should be as close to the original allocation as possible.
    3. Isaac agrees that SFAC should give extensions, and move it forward by a fiscal year. Given the current situation, he thinks a blanket extension is best, as much of the spending will be moved to next year anyway. As long as there are no financial complications, there shouldn’t be a problem with extensions.
    4. Chase echoes Lucy’s sentiment about original use of funds.
    5. Venkatesh motions for a one-year fiscal year extension for all awardees from last year’s cycle, with the stipulations that funds are used similarly to how SFAC originally allocated them. Brynna seconds. No objections, motion passes.
2. Implications for SFAC
  1. 2018-2019 Allocations
    1. Request from GSC
      1. GSC Funding Memo
    2. The year-long extension now applies to this proposal.
  2. 2019-2020 Allocation Letters
    1. Recommended addition (from Lucy): “Please note that due to the COVID-19 situation, the SFAC recognizes that units may need to amend operational plans in accordance with guidance related to the crisis. Should any SFAC award recipient need to amend a request and/or ask for an extension to implement funds due to the COVID-19 crisis, please contact me directly to explore options and seek approval from the committee.”
    2. Chase shares that this clause is added to the current years’ letters.
    3. Chase adds that he doesn’t want to do a fiscal year extension for this year’s awardees yet.
    4. Brent motions to add the paragraph, Venkatesh seconds. No objections, motion passes.
3. Student Fees
  1. Spreadsheet
  2. Chase shares that UCSC’s campus-based fees (ie, M7) are impacted by the move to remote instruction due to COVID-19. Many students are approaching this by asking for a refund, since these services may not be physically utilized on campus. Student Services Fee is set by the regents and is not in SFAC’s realm of providing recommendations for refunds.
  3. Chase and Brent have a list of these campus fees, with comments about reduction and services.
  4. Venkatesh expresses that students don’t have access to a lot of these services now that social distancing is in place. Many students may not be able to take advantage of these units, even if they are still on campus. Refunds also provide economic relief. He recommends removing all fees that are purely locational/physical services.
  5. Brynna agrees that many students are not using these resources anymore. However, a lot of these fees go toward salaries, and UCSC wants to keep staff on payroll. How would eliminating these fees impact the people being paid? Many of these costs are fixed.
  6. Lucy expects SFAC to be approached by senior administration about this topic. This is a big conversation right now amongst UC students. Fees pay for a lot of things, including both staff and student payroll. There is a paid admin leave program related to COVID-19, this is still charged to the unit. Debt service is still paid on facilities. Return to aid is still impacted by fees. A work group that Lucy is a part of advocated that all fees related to academic filings be waived due to the pandemic.
  7. Alexa shares that SCOC could afford to not have a fee, however the fee is low and would have minimal impact on credits.
  8. Venkatesh agrees that some fees are essential when they pay for salaries. He believes this is a big issue that SFAC should address. For example, college government fees may not be needed this quarter. He thinks we may need to go to units to see if there are essential fees that can go to unit heads for consultation.
  9. Chase reminds the group that these fees vary in use a lot. SFAC could approach the units funded by the fees, create an analysis, and make a recommendation to Jaye. However, the committee needs to be cautious with how they approach these units.
  10. Lucy spoke with Jaye, who confirmed that the senior admin can engage SFAC with this conversation. Lucy cautions that the committee needs an official charge from campus admin that this has been recommended already. Fees have already been charged for spring quarter, so refunds would most likely be charged as a credit to student accounts. This is how the course fees were refunded for classes no longer needing this materials fee.
    1. Venkatesh asks how these credits work for students who are graduating? Lucy responds that it depends on these students. If a student graduates and they are “credited”, it will be refunded. Every case will be different depending on financial aid, student status, etc.
  11. Lisa confirms that the chancellor wants to engage with SFAC on this subject.
  12. Chase is hopeful that this analysis will be done by SFAC, but wants members to continue sharing information with their student spaces. This process will take some time, and decisions must be made cautiously.
  13. Fiona says that summer fees should also be included in this analysis. This may set a precedent for future budget cuts.
    1. Venkatesh agrees that summer fees should be proactively included in this process. He is not too worried about the overall impact, as it could change how students look at fees in general.
    2. Fiona clarifies that fees could be hard or delayed for next year if these fees are cut, as closure may mean that they cannot reopen in the fall. Some of these services may not operate normally.
    3. Venkatesh says that since this would not affect fall, it shouldn’t be an issue to reopen these services once we shift away from remote.
Campus Elections 2020 - Consultation (Brian will join us at 2:30 pm)
1. Proposed options for spring campus elections
  1. Chase briefs the group that campus elections will also be affected by COVID-19.
  2. Brian updates the committee that there are three options for UCSC’s election process. There is a voting threshold required to pass a referendum. They may need to delay the campus-based fee vote. There needs to be student input in order to pass a new fee, and with COVID-19, there may be issues with strong voter turnout. A delayed election could have more turnout, but would not be consolidated. Another option is to lower the voting threshold to 20%, which can be passed by the chancellor. Feedback from SFAC is important to this process.
2. Discussion and make recommendations to elections commissioner
  1. There are three options: to have SUA/GSA elections this spring and referenda on the spring 2021 ballot, to have the SUA/GSA elections in spring and a special referenda election in fall, or to keep the election this spring but petition the chancellor to reduce the voting threshold to 20%. Are any of these options preferable?
    1. Lucy adds that any other ideas are appreciated at this time.
  2. Isaac believes that GSA is prepared to go forward with an online election for the GSA positions, provided that the circumstances allow.
    1. Brian wants to verify that this works for everyone.
  3. Brynna shares that postponing the vote for fees is best, given the current circumstances. She is in favor of not voting on fees this quarter.
    1. Chase echoes this thought, especially since there is currently so much discussion regarding campus fees at this time. Also, this issue may come up again if this situation continues into fall.
  4. Isaac shares that we may need a provision in case everything falls below the threshold. At the minimum, GSA and SUA may not have too many issues with spring elections, and grad students have a strong online presence at this time.
  5. Brian is in conversation with both SUA and GSA about their elections.
  6. Venkatesh prefers the first option, consolidated, since it may impact referenda units who are reliant on these fees.
  7. Brynna adds that new students may not understand why it is useful to have campus fees. This may be a bigger problem if it happens in fall, as new students have not yet taken advantage of resources that require these fees.
  8. Chase asks how the referenda authors would be impacted by an election next spring?
  9. Venkatesh agrees with Brynna. New students may not appreciate or understand what fees do, regardless of actual benefits. After being in college for awhile, students can make more informed decisions next spring.
  10. Lisa says that the Sustainability Office fee will not be charged in the fall, since the current fee sunsets this year. This can be brought to the EVC to see what can be done to extend the fee, or subsidize next year’s operations.
    1. Chase agrees that this is a concern. Can this fee be subsidized? Is there funding that can offset the sustainability office’s operations next year?
  11. Brian will be in contact with the referendum authors for their perspective. The sustainability office may already have a contingency plan, in case their fee does not pass.
  12. Lucy says that SFAC should be neutral and not make recommendations that favor a certain fee or outcome. The committee’s focus should be student participation and engagement.
Adjournment
1. At 2:51 pm, Brent motions to extend time by 15 minutes (to 3:00 pm), Venkatesh seconds. Motion passes, no objections.
2. Lucy reminds the group to input their availability for a permanent meeting time for spring.
3. Venkatesh motions to adjourn, Brent seconds. No objections, motion passes.

Next meeting: TBA