Fee Transparency Project

Present: Isaac Karth, Brynna Downey, Fiona Weigant, Veronica Mitry, Alexa Chavez, Brent Insua, Venkatesh Nagubandi, Rojina Bozorgnia, Lydia Jenkins-Sleczkowski, Elliot Lewis, Lucy Rojas, May Alvarez, Lisa Bishop

Approval of Agenda and Minutes
1. Venkatesh motions to approve the agenda, second by Rojina. No objections, motion passes.
2. Rojina motions to approve the minutes, Brynna seconds. No objections, motion passes.
Announcements and Updates
1. Thank you Chase and Brent for your service this quarter!
  1. Lucy thanks Chase and Brent for their service, she appreciates that they stepped in to lead the committee in Lydia and Adam’s absence.
2. Acknowledgements
  1. Lucy thanks the SAB and faculty representatives for their contributions. Fiona in particular returned as a past member with a great engagement.
  2. Lucy acknowledges Lisa’s contributions. She has been a great advocate for students to admin.
  3. Veronica, Chase, and Fiona are graduating/terming out.
  4. Fiona says that it has been a wonderful experience returning to SFAC this past year. She has enjoyed working with this group and is proud of what everyone has accomplished. Virtual hugs to all!
3. Other announcements
  1. Brent thanks everyone who is terming out for their contributions to SFAC.
Elections for 2020-2021 Chair and Vice Chair
1. Question from last week regarding terms of service. Committee charge reads: . Appointments to the Committee are for a tenure of two years (beginning September 1 and lasting until June 30 of the second year). The past practice has been to go two years from the quarter that a student is appointed (when a student starts in a term other than fall).
  1. Lucy clarifies the handbook states that the terms are generally two years from the time of appointment. It is a two year term from the quarter you are appointed. SCOC, GSA, and GSC can reappoint a student to a third year.
2. Chair nominees
  1. Discussion about preferred method for using votes.
  2. Venkatesh volunteers to facilitate this section of the meeting in Brent’s absence.
  3. Brent
    1. Brent has been Vice Chair this past quarter, and feels that the committee has done a great job at adapting to the current climate. Wants to make sure summaries are included in outreach documents. Wants to refine the funding call process, such as deciding earlier on what the committee wants, such as honoraria and minimum thresholds.
    2. Venkatesh clarifies what he means by minimum threshold? Brent clarifies using other funding avenues, such as Dean of Students, for smaller events.
    3. Fiona asks about the time commitment, and if Brent feels confident with his workload next year? Brent responds that he will be on SUA and Kresge Parliament VC next year. He feels he is good at time management, and feels comfortable with his commitments.
  4. Brynna
    1. Brynna shares that she is a GSC rep for SFAC, second year EPS grad student. This past year was her first year on SFAC, and it was the most interesting thing she’s done this year. It’s been great and informative to see how SFAC fits into the university. It’s been an honor to serve on the committee and help the campus with relaying information, answering questions, etc. She is energetic about the committee, is organized, always on email, open to suggestions for meeting ideas, and hopes that if she can lead an organized funding process it’ll make the committee’s deliberations easier. She also really liked this quarter’s discussions about transparency and communication to the student body, and likes the idea of bringing in small details and compiling a larger document for all students to reference how fees were used this past spring. She hopes to continue to keep SFAC interesting and wonderful.
    2. Fiona asks if Brynna understands the commitment of being a chair on a committee, and that Brynna makes sure that her studies won’t be impacted as a student. Brynna responds that this is a question she is asked regularly, and knows now which positions she would shuffle around in order to make room for the time commitment.
    3. May asks Brynna about her other campus positions? Brynna says that she has been a department representative, has been the GSC treasurer this past year, and was part of the GradLab committee.
  5. Committee agrees to vote for Vice Chair after LSS presentation.
  6. Brynna is elected as chair (9 votes, 1 abstention).
3. Vice Chair nominees
  1. Isaac
    1. Isaac shares that he is a third year PhD student, and the GSA treasurer. SFAC has helped inform him of the things that keep the university operating that students aren’t always aware of. He wants to work on ways to better communicate this to the rest of the student body.
  2. Venkatesh
    1. Venkatesh shares that he believes in the influence of SFAC and sees SFAC’s availability to admin and faculty about student issues. Being the vice chair allows him to communicate what students feel to admin. SFAC has a unique opportunity to create change. He wants SFAC to help students directly and create a speaking platform to express concerns.
  3. Venkatesh is elected as Vice Chair. (8 votes)
Visit with Learning Support Services Team (Joining us at 3:30 pm)
1. Introductions
  1. Charis, Lexie, and Jackie introduce themselves.
2. Presentation
3. Questions
  1. Tell us about the impacts of COVID-19 on operations? How have you adjusted operations in response to the pandemic?
    1. Remote instruction started 3 days before winter quarter ended. LSS sessions during week 10 and finals moved to remote instruction on Zoom. LSS does best with group learning, and they tried to achieve that through Zoom. Through spring quarter, they increased session times to 1.25 hours and increased tutor prep times, purchased supplies, writing tablets, etc for tutors which were not previously needed. Worked with AHR to hire new student employees.
    2. Jackie says that they did increased onboarding for tutors to help with community building in sessions. LSS communicated with professors, and used the KeepLearning website for resources.
    3. Charis says that Zoom sessions needed a level of security, and used a new system called TutorTrak, which provided students with Zoom links.
  2. Tell us about your current service levels, how many students are you serving? Have any students been turned away?
    1. Had a bandwidth issue for hiring practices, and had to focus on Zoom sessions.
    2. MSI has seen decreases in tutoring. They think that the change for finding a Zoom link was difficult for students to navigate.
    3. Students aren’t necessarily turned away.
    4. Lexie says that this decrease has been seen in other universities as well. Some reasons are finding help elsewhere on the internet, have additional stress, or putting in less effort to classes.
    5. Jackie says that drop-in tutoring has had low turnout. One reason could be because they appreciate 1-on-1 tutoring more with the online format. Charis adds that they don’t have no-show sessions, but rather they are smaller sessions. Tutors have reported that smaller groups allow students to feel more comfortable engaging online.
  3. How have costs increased due to COVID-19? What are your projected revenues losses?
    1. Costs have increased due to longer session times and increased prep times by about 30 minutes/ week, Zoom training and supplies, etc. They don’t know what the end of the quarter will look like. Lower utilization may mean lower costs. Staff time for data entry and COVID purchases have also increased.
  4. Short term/long term financial impacts?
    1. LSS is primarily funded through student fees. They also have HSI grant funding which is ending soon. Differences in cost have been minimal so far.
  5. Summer session plans
    1. Lexie says that summer support will look similar to spring formats. They will be an hour and 15 minutes to accommodate to Zoom difficulties and building community. They are making more data-driven decisions for which classes to support. Last year, there was an individual need for drop in sessions in math courses.
  6. Questions
    1. Venkatesh says that he was in a class that had a cancelled MSI due to COVID funding. Charis clarifies that the cancelled courses were due to lack of bandwidth for hiring. Jackie responds that they try to do early recruitment, and sometimes they don’t find a tutor by week 1. This year, a lot of operations were last-minute and they didn’t want to overhire and not be able to support student staff. For fall quarter, hiring is easier during the summer months.
      1. Charis adds that funding decreases with less students, and curriculum usually follows these trends. A lot of LSS’s funding is one-time, and if student salaries increase they will need to go back to the referendum process.
Adjournment
1. Chase says that SFAC is one of his favorite bodies on campus and will miss it.
2. Lucy adds that she will be in touch with Brynna and Venkatesh about summer items. She looks forward to seeing the group in the fall.
3. Isaac motions to adjourn, Venkatesh seconds. Motion passes, SFAC is adjourned until fall!

Next Meeting: Fall 2020 - Have a great summer!