Present: Lorraine Acker, Eileen Daniel, Peter Dowe, Crystal Hallenbeck-McPhall – Co-chair, Michael Harrison, Rachael Killion, Susan Lowey, Teresa Major, Logan Rath – Co-chair, Lisa Robusto-Mack, Rongkun Shen and Melissa Wight
Welcome and Introductions
Logan Rath was introduced to committee members as the new Co-Chair for the academic year.
Committee members will complete formal introductions once student representatives have been assigned and start attending meetings.
Members discussed the student representatives. It was decided that Dr. Acker would reach out to the BSG Treasurer to attend as the UG representative and Mr. Harrison would put a call out to GAs, TAs, and Grad fellows to find a GR representative.
Review Charge
Members reviewed the committee’s Charge. No questions or discussion points occurred at this time.
May 3, 2024, Meeting Summary
Members reviewed the meeting summary from the May 4, 2024, meeting. Any comments, edits or suggestions should be sent to Ms. Wight by September 13.
Updates to the Committee
SUNY Pooled Offset Discussions
Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall reported there are no updates at this time and that discussions are ongoing at the SUNY level. There is a SUBOA meeting next week and if any updates are provided, Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall will report back to the committee.
Fall 2024 Course Fees Approved by SUNY
Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall reported the following regarding the fall 2024 course fee requests:
- All fall 2024 course fees requests were approved.
- There was one clause to the Nursing 650 fee. SUNY wanted us to produce a financial hardship waiver and submit it. Hallenbeck-McPhall and Ms. Killion worked together to gather the information that the committee used for the hardship waiver and shared where it was posted on the website.
Spring 2025 Course Fee Requests
The requests are due to SUNY on October 1, 2024. The committee has already completed the review of these requests, so no further action is needed by the committee at this time.
Broad-based Fees
Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall provided the following update on the Broad-based fees:
- In June SUNY reached out and stated that they would be giving Brockport a $54 increase.
- Acker, Dr. Kelly and Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall met and discussed all of the fees that were proposed. While they did not have enough to fully fund all fee requests, they split out the $54 proportionately among the requestors based on what they were asking for. Since the increases that we decided were less than what were requested in the spring, they did not seek any further campus approvals.
- The clarification was provided that the Career Services fee is not considered a broad-based fee when SUNY looks at our fee structure. Therefore, when an increase comes through like the $54, they are held outside of that.
- The final increases were:
- Athletics - $21.00
- Health - $18.00
- Transportation - $9.00
- Student Recreation - $6.00
The question was raised regarding if any of the fee-based budgets have been largely unspent or are the budgets wiped out. It was stated that everyone has done a great job at spending their money and most accounts are heading in the deficit direction. The one that looks positive right now is the tech fee, but Steve has a plan to spend the dollars down and upgrade items on campus.
JPBC has been charged with looking at the broad-based fees and making recommendations. Mostly because there are deficit situations, but if they see one that is a positive situation different recommendations will be made. The focus will be on the budgets and if there are any actions we can take to keep service levels the same for students while helping fix the budget situation. It is unknown what this committee’s involvement will be with this charge as it is to be determined at this point.
Fee Registry
Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall stated that SUNY has put out a call for an updated fee registry. This is requested every two years. On the off year, which this is an off year, they ask us to just report on new fees. Ms. Killion handles this process by working with fee managers and Ms. Major’s team to make sure we capture all of items, we report them and answer any questions they may have.
Work on Online Program Interpretation & Fee Assessment
Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall stated that work was done over the summer on how we are assessing fees for online programs. The question was raised because of hybrid programs. A program may have been by approved as an online program by NYSED, but because it was hybrid with both courses on campus and online, we were not considering it an inclusively online program. Therefore, these students were going through the normal fee assessment plan. With looking at that, we decided to change our path forward and instead of that model, we are saying any program designated as 100% online by NYSED, will be charged the online fee structure. This will have an impact on our summer programs and our programs throughout the year. It was added that there are still contradictions to this model as some students may take electives on campus. For example, a history student’s schedule had BRO listed for all of their courses for the fall semester. In addition, it was stated that it is not realistic for us to track every student that is in an online program. The history department’s program is registered as 100% online but they are synchronous. They have courses that meet in person and are simultaneously streamed out.
The question was raised regarding if a program is registered as 100% online and they require electives, shouldn’t they offer some of the electives online so that students have the option to take it online and are there programs that are only offering their electives in person. It was stated that most of the departments do have online electives. In many cases, students can take electives from other departments with advisor approval. The student is just opting to take a course that seems more interesting or works better for their schedule as an in-person class.
It was stated that we would be revisiting this model in spring to discuss what is working, what is not working and if any changes are needed. This work will then be built into the JPBC report where we can show that we looked at online programs and made some changes moving forward.
Upcoming Projects for this Committee
ID Replacement Fee
At the end of the spring semester, members discussed the fee and the possibility of Ms. Frosini seeking an increase in the fee. Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall will follow up with Ms. Frosini and gather some more data. Once we have a proposal, we can have Ms. Frosini come to a meeting and ask her any questions we may have before bringing it to Cabinet for approval. This fee is a fee that we can set locally and not seek SUNY approval.
Nursing Course Fee Review
At our next meeting, we will invite Kathy Peterson to go through the Nursing course fees. Members were asked to review the Nursing Course Fee spreadsheet before next meeting.
Annual Report
Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall will be creating the 2023-24 Annual Report and submitting it to members for review at our next meeting. There was confusion as a biennial report was completed last year and the year before. Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall is working on clarifying the reporting schedule with the JPBC Co-Chairs. The request was made to complete the annual report this year and complete a biennial report next year.
CBFR Calendar
Dr. Hallenbeck-McPhall is still updating the calendar, if members notice anything that is missing, please let her know.
Actions on the Charge
Members are going to start working on the actions on the Charge. Members will start discussing our fee assessments, our waiver process and any exemptions. We will do a general overview of these items.
Other Items from the Committee
No items at this time.