Student Activity Fee Board Meeting
Friday, September 25, 2015
3:30 pm 111 HUB
Minutes
Attendance
Present
Katie Ward, Representing UPAC in place of Thomas Hendrix
Terry Ford, UPUA Representative
Kevin Horne, GPSA President
Andrea Dowhower, Asst. VP for Student Affairs (via polycom)
Emily McDonald, UPUA President
Shawn Lichvar, CCSG President (via polycom)
AJ Fink, CCSG Representative, SGA President, Penn State Altoona (via phone)
Mandy Eagler, CCSG Representative, SGA President, Penn State Shenango (via polycom)
Patrick Tanner, Director of Student and Enrollment Services, York (via polycom)
Theresa Bonk, Director of Student Affairs, New Kensington (via polycom)
Mary Edgington, Senior Director, Union and Student Activities
Kevin Harwell, Faculty Senate Committee on Student Life
Elisabeth Edger, CCSG Representative, Campus Chair, Worthington Scranton (via polycom)
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 Kevin Horne. All
were in favor.
Adoption of the minutes from April 24, 2015
A motion to accept the April 2015 minutes was made by Kevin Horne and seconded by Emily
McDonald. All were in favor.
Announcements by the Chair
Introductions were made.
Andrea reviewed the meeting schedule and timeline along with the topics that will be discussed
at each meeting. Andrea will forward this information after the meeting.
Andrea discussed the general board procedures. Topics for discussion must be presented to the
board two weeks prior to the next meeting. Members of the board will break into subcommittees
for further research and discussion. The subcommittee should conduct the background research
and discussion prior to the next meeting and be ready to share with the entire board. The board
meeting is to receive information, not to hash out details. Board members should remember that
they serve as representatives of the broader good of students at Penn State and not isolated to just
their organization. The board members role is to represent the university at large and not your
individual group specifically.
A subgroup of the board will serve as the appeals board in the allocation process for UPAC and
the allocating committees at the campuses. This group will offer a recommendation to UPAC or
to the specific allocation committee at the campuses. This group does not decide if something
needs to be funded; it is just to recommend if the appeal should go back to the allocating board
for further review.
Patrick asked for clarification on who votes. Andrea stated that the student members of the
board will vote. Andrea will vote only in a tie. Student members will vote on agenda items and
will make motions and second motions. Kevin asked if staff could make a motion. Andrea
stated no. It was noted that the agenda was approved on a motion from Mary. In the future this
will not occur. This was not clarified at the last meeting when the voting change was
implemented.
Andrea stated that the board does follow parliamentary procedure but with a small group like this
the board acts as a hybrid with a relaxed parliamentary procedure.
Mary shared that her assistant, Heide Port, will assist in setting up the subcommittee meetings.
Contact her and she will be able to handle the logistics of those meetings.
Public comment
None at this time.
Items to be discussed/voted on
UPUA Show Cause budget
Emily McDonald discussed the UPUA budget that was shared with the SAF board prior to the
meeting. It was passed in April by the UPUA General Assembly. A discussion ensued on how
the money will be spent. This budget seems to be on schedule for the year.
A motion to accept the budget was made by Shawn Lichvar and seconded by Terry Ford. All
were in favor.
GPSA Show Cause budget and carry forward request
Kevin Horne discussed the budget shared with the SAF board prior to the meeting. GPSA is
requesting that some of the residual funds be carried forward this year.
Kevin shared that the budget is slightly different from last year. They have cut some food
expenses from the budget for this year. GPSA returned funds from last year so they would like
to carry forward the max allowed. They purchased a number of items that can be used for the
next 5 – 10 years and will not have to be purchased in the future. A question was asked in
reference to the storage unit in the budget and it was confirmed that this is a rental fee for the
unit. The storage unit holds supplies for programming.
A motion to accept both show cause budgets and the carry forward request made by GPSA was
made by Shawn Lichvar and seconded by Terry Ford. All were in favor.
Items for introduction and initial discussion only (time permitting)
Audit review
Melanie Bernier stated that she and Jill Leidy reviewed the UPUA and GPSA audits. There are
no concerns at this time.
Andrea stated that this process timeline has changed from the past but hopes the timeline makes
sense to everyone. If it doesn’t, we can make changes to make it work for everyone. It will be
reviewed in January and then again at the end of the fiscal year.
Fee levels for year
Andrea shared the current fee levels with the group.
Tier 1 - $100 with 14 campuses at this level
Tier 2 - $95 with 6 campuses at this level
University Park campus is using the $95 tier level. This is for students taking 9+ credits only.
Andrea discussed some history of the tiers. This is the second year for only two levels. Prior to
that time there were three tier levels. The board found that the campuses gravitated up and that
only one campus was at the 3rd tier. When the board eliminated the third tier this campus moved
to the highest tier. Until this year, University Park was at the highest tier. That is not the case
this year. At University Park, there are a couple of fairly considerable sums of student activity
fees that UPAC does not receive. The first is former HUB Renovation Debt Service, the
Renovation to the Health Center and the allocation to Legal Services. There are others but these
are the largest.
Topics for the year
Discussion ensued about topics to be discussed throughout the year.
Kevin stated that he will wait until the next meeting when everyone is in one room to discuss.
Andrea prompted additional comments.
Kevin discussed the conflict of interest of the UPAC Chair on the board.
Kevin also referenced the Law School Fee. Andrea stated that this fee is not a part of this board.
It is charged by the Law School and is unrelated to this board. A similar conversation surrounds
the World Campus. Students in the World Campus currently do not pay a fee and she thinks
there will be a conversation as to whether they should pay a fee and what that might look like in
the future. This may have some parallel to the Law Schools additional fee.
Kevin brought up that a Student Fee Commission was created to analyze the existing fee
structure and other issues related to the fee. The conversations have been about the
institutionalization of a one fee system whereby the fee allocation would be derived from this
one fee instead of three separate fees and the incorporation of the IT fee into tuition. The
commission is still at the philosophical level and the commission is hoping to have a concrete
idea of what this fee will look like within the next year.
Andrea stated that the board will look at this as a group once something has been decided from
this commission. Kevin is hoping that at the next meeting they will have something more
substantial to share.
Emily would like to discuss spending restrictions on the SAF funds. It caused UPUA to use
upcoming funds instead of existing funds. Andrea stated that this concern may be addressed by
some additional education on the budget and that this concern could have possibly been
addressed with some carry forward funds.
Patrick brought up the utilization of SAF funds for students taking trips with an academic
component. Andrea referenced a section in the manual that was added last year that addresses
this issue. Theresa stated that a reminder should be given to the DSA’s to share this new section
that was added to the SAF Manual.
Other discussion
The March meeting may be cancelled due to a conflict with the Board of Trustees meeting.
Andrea will let the board know once it is confirmed.
You may send a proxy if you as a board member are not able to attend a meeting. The board
member must contact Heide Port stating that they will be unable to attend and give her the name
of the proxy. This needs to be communicated a week in advance of the meeting. The proxy
should be well versed in board procedures and should attend meetings ahead of time to hear
topics under discussion and be aware of the protocol of the SAF board meeting.
Recommendations to the Vice President
None at this time.
Adjournment
A motion was made to adjourn the meeting by Emily McDonald and seconded by Katie Ward.
All were in favor.