The third meeting of the Student Senate for 1998-99 was convened in 25 Law Building, Minneapolis campus, on Thursday, February 18, 1999, at 11:34 a.m. Coordinate campuses were linked by telephone. Checking or signing the roll as present were 34 voting student members, 1 ex officio member, and 1 nonmember. Mr. Jesse Berglund, Student Senate Chair, presided.

APPROVED

The Student Senate minutes are available on the Web at the following URL:

APPROVED

Jesse Berglund reminded students of the Twin Cities Campus Assembly and University Senate meetings scheduled for 2 p.m.

The Student Senate Consultative Committee took action on behalf of the Student Senate, exercising its executive authority, by approving the following amendment to the Regents' Policy on the Scope of the Fee Assessment (additions are underlined, deletions are struck out).

REGENTS' POLICY:

Student Services Fees are mandatory assessments on each campus and provide non-instruction co-curricular activities and services that make significant contributions to student development. These non-instructional co-curricular programs and activities supplement the academic curriculum, and are an integral part of the University educational experience. Both the level and scope of assessments are set through a representative process, determined by the Chancellor/Provost on each campus will have a Fees Committee with student majority membership that will recommend a fee to the Chancellor/Provost. The Chancellor/Provost will set the final recommended fee, which will be forwarded to the President for submission to the Board of Regents for information and action. Any exceptions from payment of this fee require authorization by the Board.

(Approved by the Board of Regents July, 1982)
(Amended by the Board of Regents: June, 1987)

GUIDELINES FOR STUDENT SERVICE FEES (ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY):

I. ASSESSMENT

A. Payment of Student Services Fee is mandatory with exceptions as provided by the Board of Regents.
B. Fee-supported services must be available to all students assessed.

A. All undergraduate and graduate day-school students registered for 6 or more credits per semester. quarter or 3 or more credits per Summer Session shall be assessed the Student Services Fee. During the summer, the fee will be assessed on all undergraduate and graduate students registered for 3 or more credits.
B. Exceptions to the payment of the mandatory fee will be partial or full fee are limited to non-degree seeking students, students enrolled in off-campus/distance classes (these credits will be excluded from the total credit count), and Post-Secondary Education Option students. clearly defined classes of individuals (e.g. in possession of private HMO coverage, students whose research or course work is performed outside a designated geographic area).
C. Additions to the campus Student Services Fee may be authorized for clearly defined classes of students and listed as special assessments (e.g. Technology fee for I. T. students MSA, GAPSA).
D. All registered students who are not required to pay the mandatory Student Services Fee, including Continuing Education and Extension students shall have the option of paying the full Student Services Fee, or paying optional fees as if offered by individual fee receiving units (e. g. Health Service, Recreational Sports and Minnesota Unions on the Twin Cities campus).

A. All fee-support capital improvement requests (i.e. buildings) must be approved by both the Fees Committee and by their respective student governments on each campus for improvements. on their campus. A successful request shall not be subject to revision except in the most severe circumstances (e.g. funds are collected, but the approved building is radically scaled down in size or purpose).
B. Student Services Fees shall not be used to fund courses or activities for which academic credit is offered within a department, where credit is the primary focus of the course or activity.

A. All campuses shall have a committee which reviews and recommends student services fees. That committee shall have at least a student majority, and all members of the committee shall vote. The student members shall be appointed by their respective campus student associations. Faculty and administrative staff members shall be appointed under committee procedures in effect on each campus.
B. All student members of the Fees Committee shall demonstrate quarterly payment of the Student Services Fee each semester throughout their terms. Summer Session payment is not required.
C. The specific process for determining student services fees shall be left to the individual campuses.
D. The Fees Committee on each campus shall submit its recommendations to the Chancellor/Provost of its campus. The Chancellor/Provost will determine the final recommendations to be forwarded to the President. The final recommendations of each campus shall be presented by the President to the Board of Regents for information and action.
E. All organizations, departments or programs receiving student services fee funding must have students participating in deciding how fee money is spent. Students must be involved in the development of policies and budgets for any proposal that comes before the Student Services Fee Committee.
F. The director or administrator of a University department receiving student fee funds (e. g. Boynton Health Service on the Twin Cities Campus, Intercollegiate Athletics Departments, etc.) shall ensure that adequate student participation occur regarding the proposed student fee request prior to submission of the fee request to the respective campus student services fee committee.
G. All Fees Committees shall receive administrative assistance from the respective campus administrations and student associations.
H. All persons involved in development of the Student Services Fee must recognize the relationship of fees to the total tuition and other cost of education for students.
I. The Student Services Fees Committees shall review at least biennially the budgets for all fee-receiving organizations, departments and programs.
J. The Fees Committee on each campus shall establish requirements for budget review, expenditures, and audit procedures.
K. Organizations, departments or programs receiving funds from student services fees shall demonstrate expenditures in general compliance with their submitted budgets.
L. Fee-receiving organizations, departments and programs may offer benefits to registered students who are not required to pay the Student Services Fees. The charges for benefits shall cover the full costs of services provided and shall be reviewed annually by the campus Fees Committee.
M. Organizational requests for funding will be presented in the form of total dollars needed to support the activity. The Fees Committee will convert, by enrollment-based formula, the funding on a per student basis. Actual fee support to departments and organizations will be contingent upon enrollment.
N. All budgets and all financial records for all organizations, departments, or programs which receive student fees shall be available for student inspection.
O. The needs and interests of students regarding student services fees shall be assessed in some form on at least a biennial basis.
P. Whenever possible, Summer Session Student Services Fees should be set at the same time as the regular session fees.

MOTION:

To approve the following amendment to the University Senate and Twin Cities Campus Assembly Constitutions and forward them to the Senate Consultative and Assembly Steering Committees for final approval:

. . . .

ARTICLE VIII. AMENDING PROCEDURE

An amendment to this Constitution shall be approved either by a two-thirds majority of all voting members the total membership of the University Senate at a regular or special meeting, or by a majority of all voting members the total membership of the Senate at each of two meetings, the second of which shall be the next regular meeting; and provided the proposed amendment has been distributed, in writing, to the persons and in the manner provided in Article III, Section 7, for distribution of the Senate agenda, at least ten days prior to the date of the vote on the approval of the proposed amendment. An amendment shall be effective following approval by the University Senate and by the Board of Regents.

COMMENT:

The University Senate has had difficulty passing constitutional amendments because of the current requirements. At the October 15, 1998, University Senate meeting, the constitutional amendment to lower credit numbers for student eligibility received 124 votes in favor and none opposed. Yet, this was less than the 133 votes needed to pass a constitutional amendment. It was brought back to the November 5, 1998, meeting at which time 102 affirmative votes were needed for approval. The amendment received 108 votes in favor and none opposed, so it passed, but only by 6 votes. Professor Sara Evans, Chair of the Senate Consultative Committee (SCC), then asked the Student Senate Consultative Committee (SSCC) to propose language to amend the Senate and Assembly Constitutions. SSCC proposes language to change the requirement for calculating from the number of positions available to the number of seats filled. Upon approval of the Student Senate, these amendments will be brought before the Senate Consultative Committee for approval.

RYAN FALK, Chair
STUDENT SENATE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE

DISCUSSION:

Ryan Falk, chair of the Student Senate Consultative Committee (SSCC), said that last year the faculty presented the students with a motion to change this requirement, but at that time, students were not in favor and the motion failed. This year, Professor Sara Evans, chair of the Senate Consultative Committee (SCC), spoke to SSCC and asked that they formulate a motion. This motion was then developed to change the requirement from all voting members to only those seats which are filled.

The floor was then opened for questions.

With no questions, a vote was taken and the motion was approved unanimously.

APPROVED

Mark Uszenski, the Duluth SSCC representative, stated that a food drive was held between UMD, St. Scholastica, Lake Superior, with UMD winning by raising 2,143 pounds of food. Duluth is looking towards semester conversion and waiting for the SLC Lobby Day on March 15.

Don Kenning, a Morris senator, reported that progress is being made on the new Science Building and RFC. A jazz concert is also being held this weekend. Deanne Nordberg, the Student Senate Vice Chair from Morris, added that the Morris Student Body President will be resigning after accepting a lobby job in Washington D.C.

Kelli Rusch, the Crookston SSCC representative, reported that Crookston will also be participating in the Lobby Day on March 15 and that finals begin next week.

There was no report from GAPSA.

Ben Bowman, an MSA representative, said that MSA has endorsed the Coffman Union renovations and the Pack Mariucci project, grants have also been handed out to diversity groups on campus, and constitutional amendments are being worked on.

Ryan Falk, chair of the Student Senate Consultative Committee (SSCC), informed senators that SSCC and President Yudof will be hosting a reception for student senators on Wednesday, April 21 from 6 - 7:30 p.m. at Eastcliff. Invitations will be mailed. SSCC has also discussed forming a Transportation Subcommittee. If anyone has ideas for recruiting members, please e-mail information to him at falk0059@tc.umn.edu.

Jesse Berglund, chair of the Student Senate, recognized the Morris senators present at the meeting today and said that all coordinate campus members will be invited to the April 22 meeting.

In MSA, one issue is to change attendance standards for student senators since increased senator obligations have lead to poor retention and senator resignation. The change would allow MSA to recommend student senator removal, but leave the final decision with the college boards themselves. This change would also be in line with the current practice of GAPSA.

Lastly, elections for Student Senate Chair, Student Senate Consultative Committee (SSCC) Chair, and Student Senate/SSCC Vice Chair will be in May. All positions will be open since he is not eligible to serve again, and Ryan Falk and Deanne Nordberg are graduating. SSCC seats will also be open. Any interested students should talk to current leaders about the positions and responsibilities.

Cheryl Jorgensen, President of the Student Legislative Coalition (SLC), said that the coordinate campus lobby day is March 15. Twin Cities lobby days are still being planned to focus on AHC, freshmen, and UROP Grants. She testified yesterday in front of the House Higher Education Committee with a freshmen who was in President Yudof and Mark Rotenberg's freshmen seminar class. A letter writing campaign is also being started. Anyone interested in being involved, should contact herself, Becky Hippert, or their coordinate campus coordinator.

Vice Provost Craig Swan said that with the change to semesters, students may think in terms of courses instead of credits. This, in combination with a change of most courses from 4 to 3 credits, may lead to many students taking an extra year to graduate. Another issue for the Twin Cities is the poor graduation rate. One reason for this is the location of the University in a metropolitan area. Graduation rates have been a topic of discussion for several years, and in that time some progress had been made. The University has tried to make sure that policies are aligned in a way to help students who want to graduate in a timely basis, since 83% of new students indicate that they want to graduate in 4 years. In reality only 20-30% do, with this figure rising to 40% in 5 years.

The policy before the Assembly had three elements. The first is a statement that the University expects students to graduate in a timely manner (4 - 5 years). Second is a requirement that department and programs must have a plan in place that would allow students to graduate in 4 years without requiring students to take 30 credits in one semester. Third, departments and programs can require students to be full-time to participate in that department or program. Most programs would not make use of this option, besides a few professional programs.

He then discussed the Comments section of the motion which lists several actions that have been taken to help students graduate in a timely manner. First, was the establishment of a Four Year Graduation Plan, in which participation this fall was double from last fall. Next is a proposed structure for undergraduate tuition that would charge full price to 12 credits and half price for the remaining credits. Under this plan, a student who takes 15 credits per term and graduates in 4 years would save close to $2000 over a student who takes longer to graduate. Another item has been increased course availability throughout the day. Last is the registration priority for full-time students. After adoption, people then came forward who did not think that that there had been full discussion of the issue and that there would be unintended consequences for certain students. Therefore, this priority policy was revoked.

The floor was then opened for questions.

A student expressed concern that the University is concentrating on graduation rates as in indicator of the success of the University. There are many people who legitimately attend the University part-time or attend only for additional courses or training. Some of the provisions in the policy, especially item 3, would unfairly penalize these types of students.

Vice Provost Swan responded that this policy is meant to affirm to students, who want to graduate in 4 years, and their parents that the University is helping to make sure that this option is possible. Many students who one take 1 or 2 courses are enrolled through University College. There is concern about these students if broad course availability is not an option. In regards to the requirement for full-time status, this formalizes a policy that already exists. This policy indicates that before any steps can be taken, discussion must be held with students before approval by the dean.

Another senator said that when this policy was made available to his constituents, they uniformly responded that it would unfairly penalize part-time students. The University has a responsibility to respond to all students, not just those who want to graduate in a timely manner. The incentives being offered for full-time students are excellent, but item 3 concerns students since the possibility still exists to exclude students. The University has a responsibility to the citizens of the state to provide education to everyone who qualifies for education, but this policy excludes some students. Many students of color feel that they are being recognized and then marginalized.

Vice Provost Swan responded that many people objected to the first draft of this policy. It was then revised to what it is before the Assembly today. Feelings from the first draft might be carrying over to this new draft. For students who disagree with item 3, they should amend the policy to strike the item from the document rather than not vote for the entire policy.

Q: Has this proposal been presented to the Legislature? What has been their reaction?

A: It has not, but based on broader feedback, the concern is with graduation rates.

Q: How does the University rank in terms of total graduates? Which programs require full-time status?

A: The University stays the same since it starts out at a disadvantage. Nursing is a college that requires full-time status.

A senator said that many students, when first arriving, and parents do not realize that besides just course work, there are more opportunities for practical applications. Even by promoting students to take more credits, it limits students ability to participate in research and other types of opportunities.

Vice Provost Swan said that while there are many opportunities, he disagrees that this prohibits students from graduating on a timely basis.

A students said that the University needs to walk a fine line between being too paternalistic or too laissez-faire. This policy crosses over the paternalistic line.

Jesse Berglund thanked Vice Provost Swan for attending and reminded students that this policy is up for action at the Assembly meeting at 2 p.m.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:32 p.m.

Rebecca Hippert
Abstractor