Present: Lorraine Acker, Eileen Daniel, Crystal Hallenbeck – Co-chair, Michael Harrison, Cathy Houston-Wilson – Co-chair, Rachael Killion, Susan Lowey, Teresa Major, Lisa Robusto-Mack and Melissa Wight
Regrets: Peter Dowe, Meaghan Irving, Riley Johnson and Rongkun Shen
Welcome and Announcements
- The meeting summary from our last meeting was approved. In addition, it was clarified that there would be the expense of textbooks for Nursing students in their junior and senior years.
Topics of the Day
Broad Based & Course Fees
Update on Fee Approvals
Members reviewed the course fee requests. The following questions, answers and discussion points occurred:
- Cabinet approved the fees on April 5, 2023. There were concerns on the course fees due to IFR balances and some areas have higher IFR balances. The Provost explained that many of the areas that have higher IFR balances are because of equipment replacement. Therefore, this committee will be reviewing these balances. The revenue expense reporting that Ms. Killion is completing will assist with this.
- There is still no update from SUNY regarding fees. At SUBOA last week, the general sense was that there would be no fee increases this year and most schools were moving forward with their normal fee procedures. Cabinet agreed that we should continue with our normal process with the understanding that if new guidelines were provided by SUNY, the committee would have to revisit the fee procedure.
- All fees have been submitted to SUNY for review. Killion is working with them on some questions they had.
- There are some potential issues with the Nursing fee. Since it was an item that historically was purchased through the bookstore, the university has a contract with the bookstore to offer certain services. This issue is regarding if this item should continue to go through the bookstore versus having the department buy it using a student fee revenue. Depending on the results, we may have to rescind our request to SUNY for that fee. There will be a meeting with Nursing, the Bookstore, the Budget Office and Procurement to work through the issues.
SWK 500 Course Fee Request
Members reviewed the course fee request. The fee is for software for field work management. The student will be able to continue access for life to create a portfolio. The fee is $256. It is becoming practice across institutions and the field to utilize software instead of paper. The software is still under contract review. If the course fee is not approved, the department would not be able to move forward with the software due to budget issues. It was stated questions would be referred back to Dr. Elizabeth Russell since she was unable to attend today’s meeting.
The following questions and discussion points occurred:
- The concern was stated that this fee appears to cover what an administrative process should and how does it benefit the student. This question will be brought back to the department.
- The question was raised if this is a one-time fee. It would be a one-time fee. They chose this course as it is one of the courses the students take early on and then they would have access to the software throughout their course of study.
- The question was raised if other revenue sources were examined to determine if the software could be covered with other funding. This question will be brought back to the department.
- It was stated that Nursing students utilize Brightspace for their field documents and it is the student’s responsibility to save their documents into another folder before they graduate so that they will have access to them.
- The question was raised regarding what this software does that Brightspace doesn’t. This question will be brought back to the department.
- The question was raised regarding if there would be an increase in this fee due to updates to the software. This question will be brought back to the department.
- The question was raised how this would impact the load the IT already has on maintaining the campus software. This question will be brought back to the department.
Once all answers are received from Dr. Russell, they will be distributed to members to review. An electronic vote will then occur due to time constraints for the approval process.
Communication Around Fees
Feedback was received from JPBC regarding students’ and parents’ lack of knowledge regarding fees and for the campus to review the communication about fees. Dr. Hallenbeck spoke to various constituents around the campus and the feeling is that is not the case. It is believed that we do a good job communicating about fees.
The following discussion occurred regarding the feedback:
- The question was raised regarding how the course fees are communicated. It was stated that the fee is listed in the course catalog. In addition, when a student is registering the course will indicate that there is a fee and it describes what it is.
- It was stated that there are multiple mechanisms that the Office of Student Accounts and Accounting utilizes to inform students and families regarding the broad based fees. There is a fee information page on the department’s webpage. In addition, they are listed on the “FAQ” page as well as the “How to” page. Lastly, they are listed individually on the bill.
It was determined that the campus provides a good level of communication regarding fees and there is no further action needed at this time.
DegreeVerify Surcharge
This is a fee that is charged to companies doing degree verifications. Mr. Dowe has requested to increase the fee from $5 to $10 due to his rates increasing and other schools are charging $15. This fee increase was approved without committee involvement due to the fee not being assessed to students.
Course Fee Financial Hardship Policy
The policy has completed its campus review and has been published. Ms. Major will be following up regarding the form being uploaded to the Registration and Records webpage and the finalized process of the form review. The goal was to have this implemented for the fall.
Orientation Fee Update
Dr. Hallenbeck provided members with information regarding the fee. This fee is assessed to first-year students and transfer students. The campus sets the fee. The first-year students are charged a fee of $200. Transfer students are charged a fee of $75. There were concerns with this fee as it was not being assessed to all the students that were benefiting from the orientation process. All first-year students may not attend orientation in person but were receiving the benefits of first-year programming. The decision was made to assess the fee through courses to capture the whole population of students. Due to changes in the Honors program and that there may be changes to GEP courses in the future, it was determined that the fee could not be charged as a course fee. The fee will be assessed by updating the Banner assessment table. Currently the only students that will be excluded from the fee are EOP. Gary Owens does want the program to change and have EOP students attend the same overnight orientations as other first-year students, so they do not feel like an excluded group with the current program. There are concerns related to this as a $200 fee for EOP students as their financial aid package is limited with having to cover tuition and room and board.
The following questions, answers and discussion points occurred regarding the fee:
- The question was raised if the EOP department could take on the fee. It was stated that the budget for EOP is mainly U-Wide funds and the budget for next year was submitted prior to this decision and the department would not be able to absorb the cost. It is possible that in future years, he could request the funds, but that does not mean the funds will be awarded. It was added that EOP student funding is down in relation to the charges that they are assessed. Owens has been fairly successful at obtaining persistence funds, but these funds are never a guarantee. Therefore, adding another $200 into the gap could be detrimental.
- The concern was stated regarding the timeline of having this implemented for the fall. This would put another priority onto BITS and they are already consumed by many projects.
- The question was raised regarding if online students receive an orientation. It was stated that the Mr. Chew and Ms. Rickman did indicate that they have options provided to them.
- The question was raised if this is a one-time fee. It was stated that it is a one-time fee.
- The concern was raised regarding assessing this fee to the RN to BSN population and that this fee would be a hardship for them. They are full-time adult learners. They do not receive a separate orientation. They take a course and part of the objectives of the course is learning about the program. It was stated that there is a nursing faculty member that provides individual onboarding to the students and that there is a cost for the time it takes in doing so. It was stated that is done as part of the course.
- It was stated that this committee is not voting on this, but we can provide feedback on the proposal.
SUNY Discussion on Pooled Offset - Fee Implications
The pooled offset revenues are assessed to campus through the State fringe rate. As a campus, we have a target to meet. In order to achieve that target, the funds come from the fringe collection on IFR accounts. Once the campus achieves the target, the surplus is returned to the campus at the end of the year. Due to the continual increase of the fringe rate, SUNY has decided to form a working group to review the pooled offset and if there is a different way it should be assessed. Depending on the decision, these could have implications on the fee budgets and the reserves.
Discussion and Planning
Meeting Time and Format
Members agreed to continue to meet on Fridays at 8:30am. The meeting format will be Teams for the fall semester and will be reassessed for the spring depending on attendance and discussion needs.
Roster
Members discussed the following:
- Due to the lack of attendance of the students, the Ms. Podsiadly will be discussing with the incoming BSG representatives the importance of attending these meetings and will ensure that it is on their schedules.
- Mr. Harrison indicated that there has been success in the past of have a GA serve as the Graduate Student Representative as it is included in their work schedule. It was agreed that Mr. Harrison would be tasked with recruiting a graduate student for the roster.
- It was stated the Skye Paine is the new College Senate President-Elect and would serve as the co-chair on this committee next year.
Fall 2023 Items
Members will be working on a fall fee forum and the biennial report.
Other Items from the Committee
None at this time.