MINUTES
STUDENT ACTIVITY FEE BOARD MEETING
Friday, November 30, 2007 @ 3:30 pm
233- HUB-Robeson Center, University Park
SAF BOARD ATTENDANCE
Gail Hurley, Interim Vice President Student Affairs
Stan Latta, Assistant Vice President Housing & Food Services/Residence Life
Dwayne Hilton, Director of Student Affairs
Chris Rizzo, Director of Student Affairs (via phone)
Bobby Casiano, CCSG President
Edward Newell, SGA Treasurer, CCSG Representative
Nicholas Borsuk, CCSG Representative, SGA President
Azeem Khan, CCSA Representative
Paul Russ, UPUA Representative
Jay Arcuri, Assistant Director Student Activities & Union
Dan Green, UPAC Chair
Cindy Jo Harter, Staff Assistant
Visitors:
Ellery Loomis, FAB Chair
Galen Chelko, UPAC Staff Assistant
ABSENT
Hillary Lewis, UPUA President
Joseph Gyekis, GSA President
William Diehl, GSA Faculty Senate Delegate
PUBLIC COMMENT
None
UPDATE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAB, UPAC AND SAF
Dan Green, Chair--UPAC, and Ellery Loomis, Chair--FAB informed the board that they are working on ways to streamline the FAB process to make it more efficient for students.
The Fee Allocation Board was comprised last year of 10 voting members: 3 faculty and staff, 7 students, and 1 graduate student. In reviewing the past year, they want to better serve all students and discover different ways to do things and how to implement these changes. No working models have been finalized, but they are looking at how things operated, how things went, if there is a different way to do things, and in keeping with the spirit of the SAF, bring in the ideas that went into the creation of FAB. Some areas of interest are: faculty staff representation and sustaining university entities that use the fee. There is currently no policy stating that UPAC/FAB can zero out a budget or an overly enlarged budget. Entities at UP that depend on the SAF; will get the money from SAF to sustain their interests. They would like to have Graduate representation so they to see how to physically allocate the fee

FAB was created to ensure consistency from year to year with some of the larger allocations at
University Park. Programs that have been sustained over the past ten years are: Late Night, subsidy for the Center for the Performing Arts, Bryce Jordan Center, Rec Sports—the larger programs that rely on the fee as part of the process. Dan and Ellery are trying to take some of the best practices and safeguards that went into creating FAB and would continue to ensure accountability and consistency from year to year within the system.
A question and answering session followed based on what worked for FAB last year and what didn’t work. Because the board consisted of a smaller group of diverse people who brought a positive perception, it fostered great ideas/discussions. What didn’t work was the time frame.
Some issues of concern of the students were as following:
1) There were 7 students and 3 faculty/staff on the board who all had a vote
2) Board hand selected by Vice President
3) FAB could only make recommendations to the Vice President, and in turn, he could at his discretion make any changes at any time.
Dan and Ellery will be meeting next week to create models and enhance what was already done. There is no timeline to implement yet. They will deal with a possible name change later. They will also focus on the 3 above listed areas of concern.
To access the Final FAB report, go the Student Affairs website. If you have any questions/ suggestions/thoughts/issues email Dan Green at dwg5000@psu.edu
.
UPDATE ON 2008/2009 FEE
Last year, it was recommended that a proposal would be forwarded to the President to advocate a suggested $10 fee increase for next year. There is a place folder for the University Budget
Allocation for a total increase of $5.00, although it is not set in stone. This shows a 2% inflation increase with an additional $3 extra dollars. Discussion followed voicing that CCSG and the
DSA’s/DSES’s were in favor of a more substantial increase. It was suggested that the SGA
Presidents and the other allocation board members could list the needs for a larger increase.
Some needs are equipment, development, further student programs. The $10 fee today won’t provide the same value tomorrow to promote student activities. With gas prices going up, more money it needed, and it reduces how many trips students can take. They feel that the Student
Activity Fee needs to be increased so that students will be able to have a good “out of class experience”. The smaller campuses are having difficulty spending the allocated student activity fee now. Other campuses are spending more money to get better speakers/groups/programs, and it is improving the quality of life on campus. Throughout the years, the Board has tried to keep the fee across the campuses as close as possible to create the same opportunities for all campuses.
Gail suggested that the SGA Presidents go back to their campuses see how the fee has been used at their campus, discuss the need for an increased fee, is the fee adequately funding their programs, be specific about questions, and outline parameters. There could be a possible conference call with the SAF Board members regarding this topic sometime in January. If campuses feel that there should be more than a $5 increase, they must make a good case to show

why this increase is necessary. Take a look at the overall package of fees for students: IT fee,
Room & Board fees, and increased tuition. Other questions to look at are: How is the student activity fee money going to be used? How many tiers can be used to best serve all campuses’ needs?
PROPOSAL FOR THE USE OF GENERAL FUNDS AT CAMPUSES
This proposal is requesting the SAF Board to amend its guidelines so that on a one time basis any campus can use general funds to support a staff person’s salary or program over a 3-4 year period. It is being suggested that the Board will allow the campus allocation committee to take its activities fee and allocated dollar for dollar to the SGA. Discussion followed concerning dollar for dollar versus percentage.
UPDATE ON 2008/2009 FEE
This topic was tabled until the next meeting.
OTHER CONCERNS/ISSUES
It is important that the campuses must maintain integrity and abide by the rules and policies that have been established in the SAF handbook. It was suggested to implement a plan to communicated and educate the DSA’s regarding the current handbook so that everyone is familiar with guidelines, and to make sure that the bylaws are being followed. This will be put on the agenda for the next DSA/DSES meeting in February 2008.
MEETING DATES
January 25, 2008
February 29, 2008
April 11, 2008
*All meetings are from 3:30-5:00 pm in Room 223 HUB-Robeson Center