CBFRC Summary: April 5, 2019

Present: Libby Caruso, Eileen Daniel, Peter Dowe, Samuel Druzbik, Dawn Footer, Kathy Groves, Crystal Hallenbeck, Karen Riotto, Craig Ross, Rongkun Shen, Jim Zollweg and Melissa Wight

Regrets: Teresa Major

Announcements/Membership

• Mr. Druzbik was officially welcomed as the Undergraduate Representative on the committee.
• Ms. Riotto stated she will be attending the President’s Cabinet Meeting on March 27, 2019 and will be presenting the following items:
  
  • Fall 2018 Report
  • The final Commencement Fee Proposal
  • 2019-20 Annual Broad Based Fee Requests for approval. In addition, March 27, 2019 is the due date for the requests to be submitted to SUNY System Administration.

2017-18 Open Items

•  Ms. Riotto stated that she is aware that BSG is working on re-evaluating fee assessment criteria with a deadline of April 1, 2019. Ms. Riotto asked Ms. Footer to present the results at the April 5, 2019 meeting. Ms. Footer agreed.
• Regarding the follow-up on the utilization of the “Double Technology Fee” for online and hybrid programs, Dr. Daniel stated she would follow-up with Mr. Cushman and Dr. Heyning and then report back to the committee.

Assessment of Campus-Based Fee policy

• Dr. Zollweg stated that he has a draft in development that includes his edits and well as the comments and edits of committee members. He stated that he is still working on the draft, but handed out copies so members were aware of the current status. A copy will also be sent electronically. Members were encouraged to submit any comments regarding the new draft to Dr. Zollweg. The goal is to have a final draft to review and discuss at our next meeting so that we can submit this to President’s Cabinet before the semester is over.

2018-19 Open Items

• Committee members discussed the following items regarding the Credit-By-Exam Fee Draft Proposal:
  
  • Under the Credit-By-Exam process, update #1 to state the student obtains the form from
    Registration and Records.
  • Under the Credit-By-Exam process, update #4 to indicate the credit is posted as transfer credit.
  • Suggestion was made to list the specific amount of lost tuition revenue. This will go under justification (compelling concerns).
  • Suggestion was to indicate the population most affected by this proposal are undergraduate students.
  • The concern was brought up that this increase could deter a student from taking the exam, as this fee is not covered by financial aid. This could cause a student to sit in a course that they do not really need to in order for financial aid to cover the cost.
  • Ms. Riotto will interview Dr. Banerjee, Dr. Sarrazin (Theatre & Music Studies), a Nursing professor that Dr. Peterson will recommend, to determine the amount of hours it takes to develop, administer and correct an exam so that this data can be included in the proposal.
  • The suggestion was made to include the amount of tuition savings for the student as well as the fees because the mandatory fees that are charged along with tuition are not charged along with this fee.
  • Ms. Riotto stated that at the SUNY level the Credit-By-Exam is called Credit-By-Evaluation. She suggested that we locally call the Credit-By-Exam, Credit-By-Evaluation for consistency and to ease confusion.
• Ms. Hallenbeck provided an update regarding the 2019-20 Course Related Fee Requests. She stated she has received requests from Environmental Science and Nursing. These requests will be reviewed by the committee at our next meeting. Members agreed that inviting Dr. Norment, Department Chair of Environmental Science, and Dr. Peterson, Department Chair of Nursing, to attend our next meeting so that they may be present to answer questions when members review the course fee requests.
• Ms. Riotto stated that re-engineering the fee-based budget approval process would be a summer project and some suggestions would be brought to this committee in the fall. Some other campuses start their review process in the fall. If committee members feel they would like to adopt this new timeline, this new process would take quick review and turnaround so that it can be implemented in fall 2019.
• Mr. Dowe provided an update on the development of a new GEP course to ensure those students that take the three-credit course are charged the Freshman and Transfer Orientation fee as long as they are not EOP students. Mr. Dowe stated that this work is on going and would follow-up with Ms. Birkins to see if a course registration form has been submitted.
• Ms. Riotto reminded members that the Campus Fee Registry is due to SUNY System by the end of June. The Budgeting Department will be compiling the information for the course related fee portion of the registry, the Office of Student Accounts & Accounting will be working on the administrative fee portion of the registry and Ms. Riotto will be focusing on the mandatory fee portion of the registry. The registry will be reviewed by the committee at one of the first meetings in the fall.

Items from the committee:

Ms. Riotto stated that SUNY requested that within the course description the specific amount of the course fee is to be listed. We were given a deadline of today to be compliant and we are thanks to Mr. Dowe.

Ms. Riotto stated that the feedback that BSG provided regarding the campus based fees would be reviewed in the fall when the committee completes the biannual review of fees, how they are assessed and how they are waived.

Next Meeting: Friday, April 26, 2019, 8:30-9:30 AM, 185 Seymour

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Campus Based Fee Review Committee Action Plan List

Committee Members: Libby Caruso/Eileen Daniel/Peter Dowe/Dawn Footer/Kathy Groves/Crystal Hallenbeck/Teresa Major/Karen Riotto/Craig Ross/Rongkun Shen