MINUTES
Student Activity Fee Board Meeting
Friday, March 26, 2010
404 Old Main
Attendance:
Board Members:
Jack Rayman, Senior Director, Career Services; Chair, Student Activity Fee Board
Jay Arcuri, Assistant Director, Central Office for Commonwealth Student Activities
Nick Borsuk, CCSG President
Mark Calore, CCSG Representative
Mark Donovan, UPAC Chair
Mary Edgington, Senior Director, Union & Student Activities
Roger Egolf, Faculty Senate Committee on Student Life, Penn State Lehigh Valley
Kathie Flanagan-Hertsek, Director of Student & Enrollment, Penn State Wilkes-Barre
Michael Kenney, CCSG Representative, Altoona
Alfonso Mendoza. GSA Representative
Heide Port, Administrative Support Assistant, Union & Student Activities
Substitutes:
Matt Smith for Gavin Keirans, UPUA President
Mohamed Raouda, CCSG Representative, Abington
Absent:
Ken Miller, Sr. Director of Student & Enrollment Services Rep, Behrend Campus
Matt Sheroff, UPUA Representative
Welcome and Roll Call
Roll call was taken.
Adoption of the Agenda
A motion to accept the agenda was made by Nick Borsuk and a 2nd by Mary Edgington.
All were in favor.
Adoption of the Minutes
A motion to accept the minutes was made by Mark Donovan and a 2nd by Mary
Edgington. All were in favor.
Announcements by the Chair
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Jack did not have any announcements for this meeting.
Public Comments (10 – 15 minutes)
No comments from the Gallery.
Discussion Items
Item 1 – Proposed Amendments to the Handbook regarding composition of the Board.
(Ken & Kathie) Green Handout
Kathie Flanagan-Herstek began the discussion as she was involved with the creation of
the document. She stated that this update was proposed due to the recent changes made
by VP Sims who has divided the Commonwealth Campuses into three regions for easier
administration and AVP communications. This document is asking that 1 DSA be added
to the Student Activity Fee Board to represent these newly created regions. Thus, there
would be a total of three (3) DSAs on the Student Activity Fee Board. This would still
leave the board consisting of a majority of students.
Nick Borsuk stated that he needed time to “marinate” on this idea!  He then asked if
there were any other reasons why this is being requested.
Kathie Flanagan-Herstek read the list of campuses in each of the regions to the board.
Alfonso Mendoza asked what the reason was for the regions to be set up in this manner.
Nick stated that they were doing this to keep balance on the board. Mark Donovan
agreed that balance needs to be kept. The question arose of how often the DSA’s and
DSES’s meet. The answer was a couple of times a year. Mark Calore asked if the
representative from the East could join the Southeast meeting or the Northeast meeting.
A discussion ensued about adding members to the board. Matt Smith stated that UPUA
would not support a dilution of student vote. Roger supported adding one additional
student from UP and one additional student from a Commonwealth campus to offset the
addition of one additional DSA.
Mark Donovan suggested having a nonvoting member. Nick Borsuk asked about adding
an ex-officio member with a rotating vote. He stated that this would enhance
communication for the campuses which is the underlying issue. Kathie Flanagan-Herstek
stated that she thought this would be acceptable and that the DSA’s would be supportive
of this.
Mark Donovan made a friendly amendment. The amendment on the green sheet is to
consolidate the three positions for the Northeastern Group, Western Group and
Southeastern Group to read:
“two voting DSA’s/DSES’s and one non-voting ex-officio member that would rotate
annually”.
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The voting members would be decided between the DSA’s. If one did not attend the
meeting, the other two could have voting privileges. Nick stated that this was an
excellent compromise.
A motion to accept the friendly amendment was made by Mohamed Raouda and a 2nd by
Mark Donovan.
_____ Jack Rayman
(__________)
__Y__Nick Borsuk
(____________)
__Y__ Mark Calore
(______________)
_Y__ Mark Donovan
(____________)
___Y_ Mary Edgington __Y__ Roger Egolf
(__________)
(___________)
___Y_ Kathie Flanagan-Herstek ___Y_ Mohamed Raouda
(____________)
( ____________)
__N__ Matt Smith
(___________)
__Y__ Alfonso Mendoza
(_____________)
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___Y_ Michael Kenney
(____________)
Yes 1 No 0 Abstentions
A motion to accept the amendment was made by Nick Borsuk and a 2nd by Mohamed
Raouda.
_____ Jack Rayman
(__________)
__Y__Nick Borsuk
(____________)
__Y__ Mark Calore
(______________)
_Y__ Mark Donovan
(____________)
___Y_ Mary Edgington __Y__ Roger Egolf
(__________)
(___________)
___Y_ Kathie Flanagan-Herstek ___Y_ Mohamed Raouda
(____________)
( ____________)
__A__ Matt Smith
(___________)
__Y__ Alfonso Mendoza
(_____________)
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___Y_ Michael Kenney
(____________)
Yes 0 No 1 Abstention
Item 2 – Borsuk Amendments to the Handbook regarding Exception for Student Activity
funds to replace the general funds at Commonwealth Campuses (Blue Handout)
Nick Borsuk recently attended a CCSO Group meeting and the group wanted to clarify
the wording. Nick found the minutes from the original meeting and the correct
interpretation was that the 4% was to go to the SGA’s. The subcommittee decided to
make some changes. The change will be that if the enrollment at the campus decreases
then they would not get the 4% increase.
Roger Egolf stated that enrollment needs to be defined. Enrollment can be defined
differently as either FTE or headcount. Kathie Flanagan-Herstek stated that FTE’s drive
the budgets. (FTE stands for Full Time Equivalent)
Mark Calore asked who determines this increase. It states that it is not automatically
granted. Roger asked if a new sentence should be added.
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Mark Donovan asked for some history. Kathie Flanagan-Herstek shared that there has
been a lot of “work” done on SA funds when previously only general funds were to pay
salaries. It was previously suggested to swap funds so that a staff person could help with
the SAF. This was why this increase was suggested so that they could receive an
increase as those budgets currently on general funds would. Kathie Flanagan-Herstek
had not heard back from all her colleagues but stated that some did have some other
funds to work with. She stated that the responses that she had received were a “mixed
bag”.
Some changes were made to the blue document. Nick Borsuk will make these
corrections and share with the presidents. The changes to the last paragraph are as
follows in blue.
*Exception: Beginning with the fall semester 2008, each campus SGA may elect to
allow student activity fee funds to replace the General Funds allocation from the 189-50
CO budget. SGAs may approve the use of General Funds to provide or expand salaries
for fixed term multiyear positions which support Student Affairs or any co-curricular
student service. In return, the SGA will automatically receive at least the equivalent of
their General Funds plus the equivalent percentage increase to the Student Activity Fee
for that year. The SGA however, will not be automatically granted the percentage
increase should student enrollment as defined by the FTE (Full Time Equivalent) at that
campus decreases from the previous year. In that case, any increase to the SGA
Allocation will be determined by the campuses SAF Allocation Committee. The
traditional Student Activity Fee Board restrictions as to how those funds can be spent will
be waived so long as expenditures fall within general University budget and accounting
guidelines.
A motion to accept the amendment changes was made by Nick Borsuk and a 2nd by Mary
Edgington.
The vote was unanimous.
A motion to table the amendment was made by Nick Borsuk and a 2nd by Mary
Edgington.
The vote was unanimous.
Nick Borsuk asked if the policy was that the SGA’s were to receive the 4% if they
were in their 2nd year. How are we going to make sure this is going to happen? Mark
Calore stated that this should not be retroactive.
Jack Rayman stated that the Board made the recommendation and the Financial Officers
need to ensure that the money is transferred to them. Nick Borsuk stated that the SGA’s
are not getting the money. Jack Rayman will address this with Rachel Diamond, the FO
for Student Affairs at University Park. He will share with her our interpretation of this
policy and have her share it with the FOs on the campuses.
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Open Discussion
Item 1 – Continued discussion of SAF Handbook definition of UPAC composition
(Gavin)
Matt Smith stated that he was not prepared to discuss this. Matt Sheroff was to discuss
this but was absent from the meeting. Matt asked to table this discussion to a later date.
Item 2 – The Role of UPUA/GSA in policy formulation (Gavin)
Matt Smith stated that this has to do with the new Legal Services program. UPUA wants
to make sure the SA Funds appropriated for Legal Services are being used appropriately.
Mark Donovan asked where the $2 collected for this year was and how will that money
be used. Matt Smith stated that at this point they do not have a clear understanding of
where that money is. This is a question for the financial officer.
Jack Rayman asked if there were any other questions or topics for discussion.
Alfonso Mendoza wanted to submit the GSA’s show cause budget. They are not asking
for any more money but are reallocating it within the present budget. These reallocations
are based on results from last year.
Recommendations
No recommendations at this time.
Adjournment
A motion to adjourn was made by Mark Calore and a 2nd by Mary Edgington.
The meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Heide Port.
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