Present: Lorraine Acker, Eileen Daniel, Hailey Gardner, Crystal Hallenbeck, Rachael Killion, Teresa Major, Jason Morris, Karen Riotto, Lisa Robusto-Mack, Rongkun Shen and Melissa Wight
Regrets: Peter Dowe, Michael Harrison, Meaghan Irving, and Susan Lowey
Announcements
- The December 3, 2021 meeting summary was attached with the meeting materials and can be found in Teams.
- Craig Ross has resigned from his position at the College and therefore will no longer be a member of this committee.
- Susan Lowey has a conflict at the new meeting time and will be limited in her participation this spring.
2021-22 Follow-Up Item
Spring 2021 Student Fee Presentations: Alumni Fee Follow-up Questions
Ms. Riotto reported that she had a brief meeting with Mike Andriatch and Kerry Gotham to provide the feedback regarding that the committee is looking for more substantial financial information and financial detail imbedded into their presentation. Advancement has a separate financial system so it is not something that Budgeting can compile for them. They need to develop the financial summary that they will be providing.
January 13, 2022 Workgroup Report
Ms. Riotto provided an update to the committee regarding the items discussed during the workgroup meeting. They were the following
- Policy Update – The work group recommended changing the course fee approval process to have the endorsement by this committee and move straight to Cabinet for approval and then to SUNY. JPBC would no longer be a part of the approval process. The approval process would be documented in the annual report to JPBC. The main reason is that it is difficult to get through the approval process to meet SUNY’s deadline. It was suggested that a presentation should still be made to JPBC as that is an open meeting but there would be no formal vote in JPBC. It was agreed that the modification of the policy would entail a presentation to JPBC after Cabinet’s approval. This would allow time if there was a compelling reason a fee should not have been approved, it can be rescinded from the SUNY approval.
- Student Education – The work group recommended to add access to the Fall 2021 Student Fee Forum video to the committee’s website. Net ID and password will be required to access and a brief MachForm will be added to receive feedback or suggestions.
- Assessment Criteria – The work group recommended eliminating the double Technology Fee for the exclusively online programs due to a lack of compelling data the exclusively online program students utilized technology excessively compared to other enrolled students. In addition, the technology budget is very healthy. As of June 30, 2021, they had $2 million. As of right now and being aware that there is still spending to be done this year, they currently have around $3 million. This fee could be seen as a barrier for students that are shopping for online programs. The loss of this revenue would be around $175,000 pending on enrollment numbers. It was stated that BITS was informed that this recommendation might be coming from the committee. It was agreed that if BITS could show compelling data in the future, the committee would consider approving the fee in the future and starting Fall 2022 there would no longer be a double Technology Fee. The concern over the lack of knowledge the student’s have around what the technology fee covers was discussed.
- Assessment and Waiver Criteria – committee members reviewed the comparison to other SUNY schools.
Spring 2022 Items
2022-23 Fee-Based Budget Presentation
Presentations will occur next week on February 24 at the JPBC meeting. The meeting starts at 8:00am. In addition, the presentations will occur on February 25 at the BSG meeting.
2022-23 Course Fees
The Budgeting Office has sent the call letter out to the deans. The requests are due by March 7, 2022. Committee members will be reviewing these requests at the March 28 meeting or April 14 depending on volume of requests and other potential agenda items.
Other Items from the Committee
Dr. Morris offered to work with Thomas Chew regarding incorporating education on the student fees into the APS curriculum. This could help with improving student education around the fees.
JM/KR/mw