8:30 – 10:30 a.m., Virtual Meeting via Teams
Attendees
Voting Members
- Sondra Aman
- Mike Andriatch
- Sarah Boroski
- James Cordeiro
- Frances Dearing
- Linda Delene
- Hailey Gardner
- Kandie Gay
- Kristin Hartway
- Tom Hernandez
- Margaret Lane
- Jose Maliekal
- Dave Mihalyov
- Janet Roy
- James Spiller
- Mark Stacy
- Elliot Weininger
- Katy Wilson
Non-Voting Members
- Bob Cushman
- Crystal Hallenbeck
- Mike Harrison
- Jason Morris
- Darson Rhodes: Co-Chair
- Kevin Rice
- Karen Riotto
- Jim Wall: Co-Chair
- Melissa Wight
Guests
- Lorraine Acker
- Laurie Boyd
- Nathan Bull
- Marsha Ducey
- Deborah Ferris
- Jennifer Green
- Scott Haines
- Anna Hintz
- Mehruz Kamal
- Carl O’Connor
- Heather Raczkowski
- Monique Rew-Bigelow
- Megan Sarkis
- Susan Wielgosz
- Dana Weiss
Regrets
Voting Members
- Daniel Goebel
Non-Voting Members
- President Macpherson
The meeting was called to order at 8:30 a.m.
Approval of the Minutes
Dr. Rhodes asked the committee to review the minutes from the April 7, 2022, meeting. Dr. Spiller motioned to approve the minutes; Ms. Roy seconded the motion. 13 members voted to approve the minutes. Therefore, the minutes were approved.
Announcements
Dr. Rhodes made the following announcements:
- There will be a Budget Townhall meeting on Tuesday, May 3, 2022, from 12:00-1:00pm in the McCue Auditorium. There will be information regarding the meeting in the Daily Eagle.
- A reminder for members that are serving on the Investment Fund subcommittee, there will be a meeting on Tuesday and prior to the meeting members should have reviewed and rated all the submitted proposals.
BSG Budget Presentation – presented by Hailey Gardner, BSG Treasurer
(Note: Materials are available on Blackboard and Teams)
Ms. Gardner provided a presentation on the BSG budget. The following questions and answers occurred during the presentation:
- The question was raised regarding the business manager position shifting to a state line and if that is now the College’s financial obligation. It was stated that BSG will provide the funding for the position. The reason the position is moving to a state line is to guarantee the same continual increases staff members on state lines receive.
- The question was raised if this becomes a tenured position and BSG is no longer able to provide funding for the position, does it then become an obligation to the College. It was stated that the agreement is that BSG will be funding this position. If in the future BSG is not able to fund the position, then it will have to be reviewed. Another reason why the position shifted to a state line was to ensure proper oversight and supervision from administration.
- The request was made to see the job description for the business manager position. It was stated that once the position is ready to be searched, the description will be available to the campus community. The hiring process is being completed by following the Human Resources guidelines.
- The question was raised regarding in terms of bookkeeping and auditing should there be a BSG employee completing these tasks instead of the College’s business and finance individuals. It was stated that Administration and Finance staff do not complete the bookkeeping for BSG. BSG hires an outside service to complete the audit. Based on SUNY requirements, BSG must complete an audit and submit it to SUNY. It was also added BSG went through a thorough SUNY and State audit. In addition, there is a specific SUNY policy regarding oversight of student government organizations and outlines the oversight the college can provide to the student government. They are a separate entity, like BASC. Also, BASC serves as their fiscal officer. So BSG completes the bookkeeping, but BASC produces the checks. So, there is another layer of oversight. This is outlined in the policy that it is an appropriate relationship for an auxiliary organization to serve as the fiscal agent.
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The question was raised regarding if BSG is still contributing to Scholars’ Day and the Student Travel Grant Program. It was stated that BSG did not contribute to the Student Travel Grant Program this year only because they still had funds that were not used due to COVID restrictions. Once those funds are depleted, BSG will begin contributing again. Regarding Scholars’ Day, it is not a specific line in the budget. The funding was pulled from the promotions budget this year and going forward that is most likely where the funding will be coming from.
BASC Budget Presentation – presented by Dana Weiss, Executive Director of BASC
(Note: Materials are available on Blackboard and Teams)
Ms. Weiss provided the committee with a presentation on the BASC budget. The following questions and answers occurred during the presentation:
- The question was raised regarding the reduction of contribution to the College and if this is to have more funds for equipment renewal and deferred maintenance and if there is unusually high need for this or reduced wear and tear due to COVID. It was stated that the cost of raw steel has gone up 47%. We are experiencing an increase in equipment costs. In addition, the change in menu and dining styles requires some new equipment. Also, we were scheduled to renovate Brockway, but the pandemic hit. We have about $6 million in reserves that the board has allocated for renovation. We are waiting for the results from the space study to see where the best place to invest that. We also need to make sure that we are meeting our contractual obligation with SUNY to ensure we have those designated reserves in place.
- The question was raised if auxiliary services at other SUNY schools are compelled to have this percentage increase in student plans. It was stated that everyone is increasing higher than we generally like to increase. It depends on what enrollment is and what type of financial relief they are receiving from the institution. The institutions that are going low on their plans, I don’t know how they will sustain that for the year.
- The question was raised if there is a strategy in setting the students’ plans low to help with admissions. It was stated that it is a difficult situation to predict. I think the 14 meals a week plan for $2,750 is a good option and a fair price with what we are seeing. I don’t have an actual study on the elasticity of price of meal plan, but I know in the past it was not impactful and when you look at our competitors, some of them are always going to be lower.
- The question was raised regarding if decreasing the support to the College is the only way to right size the budget or are there other means. It was stated that decreasing the support to the College is not a continuing viable option. Our goal is to work with Mr. Andriatch on building the summer programs to increase the revenue stream. In addition, we are trying to be innovative and utilize new technology. Also, we will continue to control our costs to the best of our ability.
DIFR Budget Presentation – presented by Monique Rew-Bigelow, Director of Residential Life/Learning Communities and Carl O’Connor, Assistant Director for Housing
(Note: Materials are available on Blackboard and Teams)
Ms. Rew-Bigelow and Mr. O’Connor provided the committee with a presentation on the DIFR budget. The following question and answer occurred:
- The question was raised regarding the projected occupancy of 1800 students and if the increase in online programming is being factored into that number. It was stated that the projected number is constantly being looked at. Many of our first-year classes are mostly in person. So, you if recruit a class of 1100, we will typically get 88% to live on campus because they are coming outside of the 30 miles from campus. As Ms. Rew-Bigelow stated we are marketing to the students within the 30 miles to promote the housing and meal perspective. Between freshman and sophomore year we start to lose students for various reasons, but where we really see the drop is between sophomore to junior and junior to senior. We have been talking with students about online learning versus in person. We are going to take another look at what the drop off rates are from year to year and see if there has been a big gap from COVID. We have seen a lot of students who are taking online classes that are still living in the residence halls. They are not taking all online classes, maybe a class or two. They are staying on campus for the social interactions. Graduate programs are mostly online, but there is still the option to live on campus. It is more popular than we thought but we are not bringing in 20 graduate students to campus housing yet. Looking at last academic year versus this academic year, our townhomes did not fill at first fill but this year they did. We are optimistic about the fall occupancy based on the housing selection. We are just finishing up with returning students and the singles continue to be a very popular option. It was added that looking at the last three years of the pandemic, these students were sophomores, juniors and seniors in high school. Some of them didn’t really love the experience of online learning so they want to live on campus and have the whole college experience. This is why we continue to promote the value of living on campus beyond the room rent with the programs that are offered and the 24-hour support.
Other Items from the Committee
Mr. Mihalyov provided an update of the State budget. We have received the following information:
- The TAP gap will now be closed. This is going to be about a $2.4 million positive impact for the College.
- TAP was approved for part-time students, but there are some requirements they will have to meet.
- The Excelsior program was based off the 2016-2017 tuition level and now it will be based on the current tuition level. Prior to this change, we had to make up the difference of the tuition amounts.
- Traditionally there has been $550,000,000 in the system for capital funding. There is an extra $100,000,000 included in the budget. We did not know how the extra funding will be distributed around the campuses. The construction fund is currently researching how the funding can be used.
- There will be $53 million available across the system to hire faculty. The funding includes paying for fringe benefits. This is something we are keeping an eye on because traditionally campuses do not pay for fringe benefits. We are hoping that this will not be transferred to the campuses as that is a huge expense. In looking at the $53 million, once you back out of the fringe benefits, it is approximately $35 million that can be used for salaries. We do not currently know who this will the distributed amongst the campuses.
- The streamlined process of getting programs approved through the State Education Department was not approved. The Governor had proposed that new programs that did not require licensure would not have to go through the State Education Department and this proposal did not make it through to the final budget.
The following questions and answers occurred regarding the State budget information:
- The question was raised regarding when we would receive more clarification on the budget. It was stated that we are still waiting for information.
- The question was raised regarding how the TAP gap and Excelsior funding will impact the structural deficit going forward. It was stated that it doesn’t really change the structural deficit because we were funding the TAP gap from our reserves. It does help our reserve balance. For instance, we projected that there would be three installments of the $2.4 million over three years, so instead of a $800,000 benefit, it will be a $2.4 million benefit to our reserves. It helps the reserve balance by accelerating ahead but it really doesn’t impact the structural deficit. We will be making these adjustments and they will be reflected at the Budget Townhall. If you recall, at the end of five years we were going to be negative $8.9 million and now this will have us negative $6.5 million because of the $2.4 million benefit hitting the reserves.
- The question was raised if we were historically funding the difference in tuition for the Excelsior Scholarship as well. It was stated that we were.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:29 a.m.
DR/JW/mw