Student Activity Fee Board Meeting
Friday, April 24, 2015
3:30 pm 111 HUB
Minutes
Attendance
Present
Justin Molitoris, UPAC Chair
John Wortman, UPUA Representative
Danielle Rhubart, GPSA President
Andrea Dowhower, Asst. VP for Student Affairs
Anand Ganjam, UPUA President
John Shaffer, CCSG President
Devin Heckman, CCSG Representative, SGA President, Penn State Berks
Stacy Wanerman, CCSG Representative, SGA President, Penn State Abington
Patrick Tanner, Director of Student and Enrollment Services, York
Theresa Bonk, Director of Student Affairs, New Kensington (via phone)
Mary Edgington, Senior Director, Union and Student Activities
Absent
Rosemarie Owoc, Student Life Committee, Faculty Senate Representative
Ryan McDermott, CCSG Representative
Welcome/Roll Call
Roll call was taken.
Adoption of the agenda
A motion to accept the agenda was made by Mary Edgington and seconded by John Schaffer.
All were in favor.
Adoption of the minutes (March 27, 2015)
A motion to accept the March 2015 minutes was made by John Wortman and seconded by
Patrick Tanner. All were in favor.
Announcements by the Chair
Introductions and transition –
The current SAFB members were introduced along with their successors for 2015/16. Voting for
this meeting will be done by the current members with the new members assuming that role at
the first meeting in September. As a reminder, as a member of this board you must vote for the
good of the group as a whole and be as objective as possible. You are representing your
constituency and the broader student community, not just yourself.
The SAF manual will be updated over the summer incorporating everything that has been
discussed and changed this past year.
As a new member, you may send a designee to the board meetings in your absence but it is
recommended that this person be attending the meetings regularly so they are aware of what is
going on with the Board and apprised of all pertinent discussions.
Review of tiers –
There were five campuses that chose the $95 tier including University Park. The remaining 14
campuses have elected to move to the $100 tier.
Public comment
None at this time.
Items to be discussed/voted on
Process to request carry forward for UPUA and GPSA –
Andrea presented the language discussed at the March meeting.
Each year, UPUA and GPSA may request a carry forward of unused funds from the
previous year up to 8% of their total lump sum budget, providing that such funds are
remaining in their ASA accounts at the end of June after accounting for any outstanding
Purchase Orders. (Note, based on 2015, the maximum UPUA could request is $11,170
and the maximum GPSA could request is $4,763.)
It will be the responsibility of the newly elected leadership “president or president’s
designee” to request the carry forward and to submit their requests to the SAF Board
Chair one week prior to the first SAFB meeting. Details about how the carry forward will
be spent must be outlined in the same format as the show cause budgets, which are also
submitted one week prior to the first meeting. At the end of the year, as a separate
section of the annual audit and in the same format, each organization must provide
details about the exact usage of the carry forward funds. Any carry forward funds not
spent by the end of the fiscal year will be returned to UPAC. In no instance shall either
organization be allowed to increase the amount of their carry forward request above the
8% threshold established by the University.
(pg 8-9 of the manual)
John Wortman asked that first sentence in the second paragraph be changed to read “it is the
responsibility of the newly elected president.” Danielle asked that the group also add the
treasurer to this section listing it as “President or President’s designee.” Theresa asked if these
two could make a decision without the support of their group. Andrea stated that it is the group’s
responsibility to handle internally those types of decisions and procedures that have been set up
within their own specific organization.
A motion to accept the addition to the manual for UPUA and GPSA to request carry forward
with the proposed changes was made by Anand Ganjam and seconded by Danielle Rhubart. All
were in favor.
Lump Sum Funding Changes Andrea shared that there is still some inconsistency that needs to be addressed. John W.
separated the section into two – allocations and lump sum funding. John W. explained the
rationalization for the reorganization of the section. Danielle asked to have a date added for the
future. There is no reference of a date to begin moving forward on the 3 year review. This will
be added to the last sentence in the last paragraph. The final bullet will need to be revised to add
the section about the carry forward funds.
Theresa felt that the first bullet in the first section is confusing. Discussion ensued on who needs
to approve lump sum budgets. Theresa felt that it was not the duty of this board to review lump
sum allocations for groups other than UPUA and GPSA. Andrea clarified that this section is
only referring to University Park and the two governing bodies. It also does not refer to UPAC’s
standing allocation process. These requests include budgets and formalized reviews, hence are
not lump sum funding. GPSA and UPUA are the only organizations that are allocated money
without budget backup. Theresa asked to have a definition added to this section to show the
difference between lump sum funding and standing allocation funding. Devin agreed.
Discussion ensued.
A motion to table this discussion and move it to a subcommittee was made by Danielle Rhubart
and was seconded by John Schaffer. More discussion ensued.
A motion to accept the some of the changes to the manual as stated was made by John Schaffer
and was seconded by John Wortman. All were in favor.
IV. Lump-Sum Allocations
Allocation committees can approve lump-sum allocations; however, the group
receiving the lump-sum allocation needs to submit an annual report of the
expenditures to their SAF allocation committee. This information should then be
used to complete the SAF Final report for that campus location.
UPUA, CCSG and GPSA organizations (as recognized by the Penn State
University Board of Trustees) will be granted lump-sum funding provided they
meet and sustain the criteria outlined below. Lump-sum funding, as of 2012, will
be as follows: GPSA Budget = $59,542, UPUA Budget (without legal services) =
$139,628.55and CCSG Budget = $36,528.29. Each standing lump-sum
allocation will be reviewed every 3 years for adjustment, beginning with the 201516 fiscal year.1 2
Criteria for lump-sum allocations for the Student Government organizations are
as follows:
1
Revision adopted 1/27/12
CCSG currently does not receive lump sum funding as it has not been approved or implemented. Updated
5/27/2014.
2

Must be in good standing with the University (i.e., registered with the
Office of Student Activities, no misconduct or arbitration within the last
academic year and the seating of a full executive body).

Must submit a “show-cause” budget to the full SAF Board by the end of
September of each academic year.

Each organization funded by lump-sum funding will be required to
complete a mid-year review and an annual audit each fiscal year. The
organization will work with the financial officers in Union and Student
Activities to conduct the audit. The annual formal audit (from previous
year) and show-cause budget will be reviewed at the first meeting of the
year, and the transitional audit will be reviewed by the SAFB at the last
meeting of the year. 3 (Refer to Appendix B for the audit procedures).

After the completion of the fiscal year audit any unused funds must be
returned to the UPAC budget.

After review of the audit and the “show-cause” budget from each
organization, the SAF Board will make a lump-sum funding
recommendation to the Vice President for Student Affairs at the
conclusion of every third fiscal year. The recommendation may not be
decreased by more than 10% from the previous allocated funding.

Each organization may co-sponsor events with recognized organizations.
(Refer to the definition of co-sponsorship found in Section D, #12.)

The organizations will not serve as allocating bodies to the University Park
Campus. This role will be reserved for the University Park Allocation
Committee.

UPUA, CCSG, and GPSA are not eligible to submit a request for
additional funding to the Student Activity Fee Board, with the exception of
the 8% carry forward request, or to the University Park Allocation
Committee.
The larger conversation about lump sum funding at the campuses was tabled.
Items to be discussed for future action
Agenda Items for next year Lump-Sum Funding – manual change
First topic should be lump sum funding and manual clarification.
Student Fee Commission Anand stated that the Fee Commission is making great progress. This may be a topic to discuss
further next year.
3
Revision adopted 5/27/14
Additional Discussion John W. would like this board to have some serious conversation about removing the UPAC
chair from the board. He believes it is a conflict of interest for allocators to be part of setting the
fee levels. Andrea reminded the group that there are SGA chairs, who are allocators, also on the
board with voting rights.
Theresa stated that we have a faculty senate member on this board that is not present. This board
is missing a critical voice when they are not participating in the discussion. Andrea stated that
some years the faculty senate representative has been a student and other years a faculty member.
The level of their involvement also varies from year to year. Mary stated that the HUB-Robeson
Center Advisory Board has had some great members from the faculty senate so it is worth
keeping this seat and hoping that the next person selected will be more active.
Andrea thanked everyone for their participation on the board. The first meeting of the fall
semester will be from two locations - half the group will be at a campus and half the group will
be at University Park. It is probably good to get this type of meeting done early before critical
discussion needs to take place which is better done face-to-face.
A motion to adjourn the meeting was made at 4:40 p.m. by John Schaffer and seconded by
Danielle Rhubart.