Present: Eileen Daniel, Peter Dowe, Melissa Feola, Crystal Hallenbeck-McPhall – Co-chair, Michael Harrison, Rachael Killion, Susan Lowey, Teresa Major, Skye Paine – Co-chair, and Rongkun Shen
Regrets: Lorraine Acker, Lisa Robusto-Mack and Melissa Wight
Welcome and Introductions
- Lily Wegerski was introduced as the new Undergraduate Representative for the committee.
- Members completed introductions.
- Ms. Wegerski mentioned that the first part of the BSG elections is underway. Any student interested in running, needs to submit an interest form by 2/12/24.
- Members discussed the option of moving the meetings to 9:00-9:45am to avoid course conflicts like last semester. It was agreed this was a doable option as long as it did not cause a conflict for members that were not present. Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall will follow-up to make sure this is a doable time for all members.
ENV Course Fee Review
Dr. Jacques Rinchard was present at today’s meeting to answer any questions regarding the review of the ENV course fees and associated budgets. The following questions, answers and discussion points occurred:
- The question was raised regarding if the course BIO 303 had a low enrollment due to being a cross listed course. It was stated that it is a cross listed course and it is cross listed with ENV 303.
- The question was raised if the course fee for ENV 202 was reduced and if price in materials increased. Citing that in FY21-22 there were 50 students enrolled with an expected revenue of $2,500, but only $1,800 was spent. Then there were 42 students enrolled with an expected $400 less in revenue, but we spent almost $600 more. It was stated that at one-point ENV 202 was combined with ENV 201 because they were taught at the same time. Only ENV 202 had the lab section so the enrollment numbers could be inflated from that. Now the courses are taught separately.
- The question was raised regarding the expenditure for the plush toys and what they are used for. It was stated that it is unknown, but probably for the ecology course for the population dynamic lab. Dr. Rinchard will check in to what the use is for.
- The question was raised regarding whether the classroom stationary expense listed for ENV 462 is paper or something else. It was stated that it is unknown and would need to be looked into.
- The question was raised regarding information in terms of the field trips the students take, why they take them and how many do they take. It was stated that it is dependent on the course. In the past when Dr. Rinchard taught the fisheries course, the students would take five field trips during the semester. With the experiential learning, they would be in the field practicing electrofishing, gill netting, those kinds of activities on the boat. They are also taught the technique they will need to capture fish. A 15-passenger van is needed to transport the students from campus to the location. We do this in most of our classes. Depending on the course, the location could be in the woods, wetlands or Lake Ontario. The van rental from campus is $85 a day. We have tried to reduce the rate because going to Lake Ontario, the bus is not needed for a full day, but they will not charge by half of a day. It has to be a full day rate.
- The question was raised regarding what the surplus in the account is used for. It was stated that the surplus is used for broken equipment.
- Members discussed that more clarity was needed and more information on the expenses in question especially since it is a lot of cost to the student, but the surplus does not seem to be large and the funds are spent to support a viable program. It was agreed that follow-up with Dr. Rinchard would be completed.
Updates to the Committee
SUNY Pooled Offset Discussions
The SUBOA working group did put forth two proposals for feedback from the SUBOA group. They are still in the phase of receiving feedback on the proposals. Both of the proposals that were put forward look at the SUNY target that we have to hit for pooled offset versus the money we receive in pooled offset state support (part of our total state support is pooled offset). You would think with these two numbers being titled the same that they would be equal, but they are not. Sometimes schools end up paying more than what they get in pooled offset state support and others end up paying less. Part of this exercise is to try to equal that out amongst the schools. Both proposals are looking at changing the way we assess fringe. They are potentially giving more flexibility to the campuses, where the school will have a target and it is up to the school to determine what it charges to the IFR accounts in order to hit the target. The concern is that it appears there is going to be less surplus coming to campus. Whenever we receive an overflow from the pooled offset, it is moved into reserves at the end of the year. This is what helps bump up our reserve balance at the end of the year. The reason for the concern is that in both of proposals, they are changing the way that fringe is assessed to SUTRA accounts. SUTRAS are summer and winter session budgets. Currently, fringe is assessed to the revenue versus to the payroll, like on an IFR account. They want to make these items equal and have SUTRA accounts assess the fringe on payroll. Our campus does not have a lot of payroll that flows through SUTRA. This change would equate to losing an estimated $1,000,000+ in pooled offset revenues. The question was raised regarding how many employees are paid out of the SUTRA. It was stated that there are two employees and any temp service that is nonstudent, like the summer session stipends, would be assessed fringe if we moved to this model.
Comprehensive Fee Discussions
There is still a pause on discussions.
Spring 2024 Course Fee Requests
SUNY’s approval for the course fee requests were distributed for members to review. There will be a meeting later today to discuss how to implement the refund process if students do not go on the ENV field trips. This is going to be difficult to navigate due to the manual process that will be needed and determining a formula of the refund because it would only be if the second day is not needed.
Summer 2024 Course Fee Requests
No course fee requests were submitted.
Fall 2024/Winter 2025/Spring 2025 Course Fees
Requests are due to Rachael by 2/21/24. Members will review them at the next meeting. JPBC will then review them by 3/28/24 in order to meet our SUNY deadline. Currently, no requests have been received.
SUNY Incremental Funding - Graduate Fee Mitigation
It was determined that with the initiative amount of $14,700 only the student health fee could be covered by the funds. It would not be enough to cover all of the student fees for the graduate students employed on campus. The funding was just received, and it appears that amount will cover the fees for both fall 2023 and spring 2024. Students will receive a credit to their account. The Provost has agreed to cover the additional funds if we do not have enough to cover all health fees. We are working through how to proceed if there is a surplus of SUNY funds. This funding is considered a grant and it will impact the students’ financial aid budget. If this award puts them over their financial aid budget, they will have to have funding returned to the lender. The SUNY funding is slated to continue for three years. After that, the understanding is the Provost does want to continue with this type of initiative.
Athletics - Cabinet Decisions to be Implemented July 1, 2024
Athletics brought forward some proposals for this year to fully fund some coaching positions because they are having trouble filling coaching lines and getting schedules to work with coaches and athletes. This is due to a lot of their coaches being part-time and having a different full-time job. Cabinet approved some contingency funds in FY23-24 to make those positions whole. This funding will continue moving forward into FY24-25 and FY25-26.
Athletics brought forward another proposal to make more positions full-time as well as some other items. Cabinet decided instead of the campus giving them additional funding directly, the overheads charged to the Athletics budgets would be reduced from 16% to 8%. They will still receive the previously agreed fringe relief on top of this. An impact of this reduction is that there is a line item in our reserves for collected overhead which adds funding to our reserves each year. This will reduce the deposit to reserves.
DIFR, BASC, BSG Call Letters
The call letters were approved yesterday at JPBC. Members were asked to mark their calendars for the presentations on 4/18/24.
FY24/25 Broad-Based Fee Updates
Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall met with Dr. Kelly, Dr. Acker and Jackie Clark to determine the direction we wanted to move forward in for the broad-based fees this year. It was decided it would be best to continue our normal process and plan for the increase. If it doesn’t happen, then we know we are not any worse off than where we are now. The HEPI rate was examined and determined that $73 would be available. This amount was divided among a few different fees. Athletics, Student Health, Student Recreation and Transportation were each given part of the increase, but the full $73 was not used. Calculations need to be completed before the amounts can be shared. Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall and Ms. Killion are working on getting the budget templates out to the fee managers either today or early next week.
Spring Student Fee Forum & Presentation to BSG
- Feedback received on the forum comment form has been implemented.
- Hallenbeck-McPhall and Ms. Wight met with Frank Mancini this past week to go over the logistics. With the new Teams structure, there are different options for presenting to the public. We will be utilizing the Town Hall event within Teams. Mr. Mancini recommended we complete some practices first. We will be doing one internally and then one with the fee managers to make sure everyone gets the feel of how it will work.
- The Teams event will be on March 8 from 9:00-10:30am.
- The BSG forum will be on March 8 from 4:00-6:00pm.
- Input from members on the communication for the forum is being looked at to connect with the different constituencies
FY24/25 Course Fee Rubric
Members reviewed the rubric. The following questions, answers, and discussion points occurred:
- The concern was raised regarding question #9 and the inability of members to answer the question without knowing the related expenses. It was acknowledged that the question is important, it just will be difficult to accurately answer. It was stated that SUNY has been questioning surpluses lately so it is important to have as part of our review, but the question can be reworded so that it makes sense for our purpose.
- The concern was raised regarding the wording of questions #5 and 6. It may be better to answer for the proposer in regards to the financial situation of the department versus the institution. Most proposers are looking at the financial situation of their department. It was stated that the questions are directly in the fee policy itself and it is something that SUNY considers on that level as far as fees. It was agreed that the question could be reworded so that it is looked at a department level.
- Members agreed they would be comfortable using this for each course fee request that is submitted.
Revenue & Expense Tracking
Members will be provided with the next round of revenue and expense tracking for review.
Other Items from the Committee
- At an upcoming meeting, members will be reviewing summer and winter session broad-based fees. It is believed that the last time these fees were reviewed was during COVID and some decisions may no longer be relevant.
- There are departments on campus that would like to assess course fees by section instead of by course level like we currently assess the fees. This is due to the fact that one section could be offered in-person and another online and departments feel that one section should be assessed the fee and not the other one. We are still in the information gathering phase and if we decide to change the assessment, we may need to come up with some policies on how we want to institute the change. The concern regarding this request is around equity and further information is needed. In addition, there will be issues around programming and with the current policy, if a student drops a course with a course fee, the fee is not refunded. So, a student could drop the in-person section and add the online section, but still have to pay the fee.