SUFAC Meeting 4/18/11
Members Present:
Laura Lauderdale
Reece Rykal
Carly Cappozzo
Katie Johnson
Katie Pointer
John Palmer
Hoang Vo
Madisson Heinze
Tiep Nguyen
Brianne Rogers
Larry Ringgenberg
Not Present:
Derek Nelson
Bonnie Jo Bratina
Meeting called to order 5:32 pm
I. Presentation by Bob Hetzel and Paula Knudson
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Impact of Governor Walker’s bill: University officials pay higher pension and higher cost for
health insurance. Cumulative effect of these high fringe benefits is an extra $298,000 in
segregated fees that will not be spent.
Popular question: Why do we have to pay an additional fee to use the strength center if we
already pay a segregated fee to use the REC facility? This is not logical, especially comparing this
with other UW campuses.
The plan is to have the Mitchell strength center only open to athletes and students in ESS
classes. The REC strength center will be open to all students. $140,000 of the segregated fees
will be allocated to the strength center and all students will pay an additional portion of this to
fund the change.
In order to not over-crowd the strength center, some of the equipment may be moved ie.
putting the aerobic equipment on the upper track etc.
Over the next two years, the graduate assistant salary will increase due to the fact that it hasn’t
increased significantly over the last 15 years. Their salary will increase from $10,000 to $12,000
next year and to $14,000 the following year. This will amount to an additional $40,000 per year
totaling at $80,000.
In the next few years, major changes will be made with Cartwright or a potential new student
union. It would be a good planning strategy to hold the additional money next year in
segregated fees to possibly be used for this project. This extra money would amount to $78,000.
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One of our main concerns is the size of the space of our current strength center compared to
the number of students we have. This will be addressed by moving some of the equipment and
giving the entire strength center a face-lift by adjusting how the space will be used. There will
also likely be an expansion of hours for the strength center to the same hours that the REC is
open.
The student athletes will pay an extra participation fee to use the Mitchell strength center and
they will be prorated if they don’t make the team. They are looking into having a trainer that
would be available to students training on or off-season.
This change would happen starting July 1st, the first day of the next fiscal year.
This change will be carried through to each individual budget that it affects, namely any budget
that includes fringe benefits.
II. D2L funding changes
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Another recent proposal is to change the way D2L is funded. Currently, only students taking
online classes pay $75 per credit to fund D2L. This will change to charging each student $2 per
credit, whether it is an online class or not, and this will fund the University’s use of D2L. This will
take effect July 1st.
III. Budget cuts in the coming years
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In order to attempt to solve our million dollar budget cuts in the next two years, we have to cut
about $600,000 from base budgets.
o Two positions from Budget and Finance will be eliminated saving $100,000.
o A registration fee will be applied to each student $15 per student each semester that
will NOT be credited to their account when they pay their student bill. This will generate
$270,000. There are two other Wisconsin Universities that have registration fees and
may other Universities nation-wide do as well.
o Another option would be to use some of the fringe benefits savings to cover the budget
cuts but there are several needs (strength center, graduate assistant salaries) that we
think should be addressed first. There logistically are not other places in the University’s
budget to cut money without sacrificing a level of service in one area or another.
Meeting adjourned 6:33pm