Fee Transparency Project

Attendees: Marshall, Mel, Trey, Laila, Angelina, Lyra, Lisa, Arielle, Lucy, Vir, Aims, Cheryl

Guests: University Registrar Tchad Sanger and Finance Manager Ken Maranta

[3:30 - 3:33] Welcome and Introductions
1. Members' introductions: Name, Pronouns, Year, Major, and Space.
2. Order: Cowell, Stevenson, Crown, Merrill, Kresge, Porter, Oakes, RCC, C9, JRL, Graduate Students, SAB, Provost, SUA, Lisa, Sezona, Lucy
[3:33 - 3:35] Approval of the Agenda and Minutes
1. Approval of Agenda
  1. Agenda approved by consensus
2. Approval of April 7, 2026 Minutes
  1. Add: Lisa provided a summary of the Administrative Records Fee.
  2. We will review the minutes next week and approve after additional time to edit and add details.
[3:35 - 3:40] Public Comment
1. Vir acknowledges that CSF was wonderful and it was so good to have so many of our members present. He thanks Mel for her leadership on planning the meeting.
  1. Lucy says thank you to Mel for leading the efforts and Marshall and those who participated. We did a great job representing Santa Cruz in the meeting space.
  2. A UC San Diego member was elected the chair of the CSF.
2. Marshall shares the SUA Chair, Rigo, has been identified as the SUA Ex-Officio for the rest of spring quarter given that Maya is not able to attend meetings this quarter.
[3:40 - 3:45] Announcements
1. Absentee comment form
2. Request from Stevenson Cowell College community garden regarding an extension of their 25-26 SFAC award
  1. Tabled to next week; Lucy has not heard back from the Cowell Stevenson student leaders with the updated budget and request.
3. Graduation Stoles
  1. Should we continue to order them by singular graduates every year, or should we create “The SFAC Stole” and do a bulk order?
  2. Vote: $100 on graduation stoles for those graduating
4. CSF debrief
  1. Notes
    1. There was a discussion about student services fees and financial aid. Some interesting points came up and Marshall would like to invite the Director of Financial Aid to come and visit with us.
    2. There was a workshop on how to diversify SFAC in terms of ideas and perspectives.
    3. There was discussion about the STAR, student advocate to the regent position.
    4. UC San Diego hosted a workshop for future leaders in SFAC. They discussed different scenarios that SFAC members can find themselves in.
    5. Laila shares that Andrew from UC Riverside shared the process used to collect information from every SSF funded unit on an annual basis. The unmet need summary provides a basis for a funding request. They do a mid-year review and then a year end review. It was interesting to learn about the audit procedures used at other campuses.
  2. Add notes to this doc: Talking Points
SFAC Chair/Vice-Chair Reports
1. Chair
  1. Meeting with Travis (DOS) and Randy (IRAPS) for pro/con statements on spring ballot
    1. Waiting on mockup from Randy
    2. Soon will start drafting amended elections policy language
  2. Future meeting with GSA president in May
  3. Meeting with VC Akirah
  4. Meeting with UCOP AVP Cain Diez and UCOP budget and planning office
    1. Send questions you wanted answered
  5. Going to Athletics and Recreation RFAC meeting today
  6. First Misc/Course Fee Committee Date on Friday
  7. Finishing reductions recommendations
2. Vice-Chair
  1. Happy Week 3
  2. Thank you to everyone who helped out during/attended CSF!
    1. Genuinely one of the best events I had the honor of planning and I couldn’t have done anything this weekend without you!
    2. The biggest thanks to Lucy, I definitely couldn’t have done anything without her. Everything ran so smoothly and it felt great to have that constant support if we needed anything last minute for the meeting so thank you Lucy for making time this weekend!
Subcommittee Reports
1. Audit
  1. Round 1 almost complete, Round 2 to be underway soon (and will finish this quarter)
  2. The Audit Committee agreed that producing more reports will be the best way for us to improve, not spending significant time on each individual report.
2. Outreach
  1. We will be meeting 11am-12pm every Friday this quarter!
    1. 04/17/26 Outreach meeting will be in person Iveta Cafe located in the Quarry
      1. I would like to not have a zoom option going forward, please let Mel know if this would affect you
    2. We will continue to plan the Student Fee Summit
[3:45 - 4:00] Discussion - Student Fee Summit [Presented by Mel]
1. Summary: Outreach Committee met last Friday to add to the planning for the Student Fee Summit, Mel will run through the planning document to explain what planning has been done so far, and wants suggestions on what could be added to the event so the Outreach Committee can start formalizing our plans.
  1. If you are not in the Outreach committee and would like a role in the student fee summit please let Mel know she will find something for you!
  2. Mel reviews a planning document which describes the event.
  3. Two tentative dates: Friday, May 8th or Monday, May 11th. 11:00 - 3:00 pm.
  4. Location: Porter Quad - good foot traffic, good parking, stage, accessible. Porter Senate will waive the rental fee.
  5. Food is the incentive for this event. Burritos from Vivas - has a relationship with the vendor, local Santa Cruz vendor.
  6. Tabling
    1. SFAC
    2. Three referendum groups
    3. SUA elections (to promote elections; no candidate promotion)
    4. College Government
    5. Student Media Council
    6. Resource Centers
    7. STARRS
    8. Graduate Student Association
  7. Programming
    1. Lawn Games
    2. 5-10 speakers - introduction, their role with student fees, we can collect questions in advance. Possible speakers:
      1. Dan Henderson
      2. Akirah
      3. SUA Chair
      4. Financial Aid
    3. Education Resources
      1. Educational materials on each fee
      2. For tables for fees that we already pay, we make a graphic that shows how much the fee is
    4. SFAC tabling would be informational
[4:00 - 4:35] Records Management Fee - Presentation from the Registrar’s Office
1. Summary: Last year the Miscellaneous and Course Fee Committee recommended to the Chancellor the adoption of an Administrative Records Fee; SFAC was consulted and issued a recommendation to the Miscellaneous and Course Fee Committee. The fee was adopted. The fee is a one-time fee paid by all students when they enter UCSC; students have access to unlimited transcripts, and other administrative records across their lifetime. When recommending this fee, SFAC issued a recommendation that the University Registrar visit with SFAC at the end of the first year, to review actual revenue collected, the utilization of the fee, etc. This is the first of those annual meetings.
2. SFAC’s 2025 Recommendation (full letter)
  1. Regular Engagement with SFAC: We value Mr. Sanger’s openness to returning annually to meet with SFAC to discuss the fee’s performance, share updates, and receive student input. We recommend making this an annual practice to ensure continued transparency and collaboration.
3. Guests: University Registrar Tchad Sanger and Finance Manager Ken Maranta
4. Tchad shares a slide deck.
5. Tchad explains that the Registrar’s Office has been working for some time to update its funding model.
6. The fee collected $1.2 million in revenue. Undergrads pay $200 for the fee with $150 going to the Registrar Office and $50 going to return to aid. Grads and professional students pay $200. Summer Session students also pay the fee.
7. Expenses were about 85% to target. There are approximately $163,750 in carryforward funds.
  1. There is a staff vacancy which created some of the carry forward.
8. Next year they do not anticipate an increase to the fee, but they do expect a FY28 increase.
9. A variable is the new salary scale ranges are for newly accretted positions to a union.
10. Lucy asks whether this fee is subject to the campus assessment; Ken responds yes, it will be assessed at 1% after return to aid.
11. Lisa asks whether there is a plan to reduce the fee in future years if the carry forward accumulates? Tchad anticipates that there will not be carryforward.
12. The positive impact
  1. 2024-2025: 19,511 Transcripts Ordered -
  2. 2025-2026: 25,563 Transcripts Ordered - have seen these numbers since the housing market crash in 2006.
13. Marshall asks about return to aid and whether it's sufficient at 25%, where other fees are at 33%. 25% is the systemwide requirement. Tchad is open to discussing a modification. Suggestion that we ask for feedback from the Financial Aid and Scholarship Office.
14. Tchad introduces some new opportunities Enrollment Management is seeking a budget request for:
  1. Degree audit planning tool. Tchad mentions Enrollment Management is reviewing possible third-party vendors to replace the current system.
  2. Discussion on the issues with the current system.
[4:35 - 4:40] Discussion: SFAC Chair/Vice-Chair report
1. See item #5 for the Chair and Vice Chair reports
[4:40 - 5:00] Discussion/Vote: TAPS: Discussion on Measure 73 Recommendation
1. Background: At the February 23rd SFAC meeting, Executive Director of TAPS, Dan Henderson visited with SFAC for the annual presentation that is required by Measure 73. Measure 73 states that each winter quarter, TAPS will present information to SFAC (ridership data, budget, etc.). After this presentation, the SFAC developed a recommendation for the chancellor related to whether the fee escalation that was voted in by students in Measure 73 should be implemented for the following year. For 2026-2027, the fee increase would be $3.00 per student per quarter, or a total of $9.00.
2. Summary: Finalizing goals we want TAPS to meet from last meeting's discussions. Previous goals will be amended based on responses from the Director of TAPS. These goals are intended to be finalized to give enough time to discuss with TAPS. Vote will be on approving the proposed goals and allowing SFAC leadership to start discussions with TAPS.
3. Items:
4. Vote: Initial proposed Measure 73 Recommendation - tabled to the next meeting
5. Marshall asks everyone to spend at least one hour of their work time this week on TAPS metrics. Add examples to the final two goals on the metrics. This about a service within TAPS that is a big issue that we would like to see a new goal developed for.
[5:00] Adjournment
1. The meeting adjourned at 5:04 pm.

Upcoming Guests/Topics:

Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students Garrett Naiman: April 21st @ 3:30 pm. Consultation regarding campus based fee that fund the Student Volunteer Center
Tour of Kresge College Renovation Project: May 12th @ 3:30 (Meet at Kresge by parking lot 143/145, closest to R12 and R13). Must wear pants, and closed toe, hard toe shoes Tennis shoes are ok, but hiking boots are better).

Meeting and Committee Member Resources:

SFAC Roster
Orientation Materials
Agendas and Minutes
Tracking Sheet for Campus Based Fees ongoing discussion
Google Folder
Summer 26 Fee Levels