Fifty-six of 57 requests made by several UTRGV programs are being recommended to receive funding from the student services fee projected revenue, according to documents obtained by The Rider.
Now that the Student Fee Advisory Committee recommendations have been submitted to UTRGV President Guy Bailey, he must review them for approval.
The Rider tried to contact Bailey last week for an interview, but he was unavailable.
Earlier this semester, UTRGV organizations and departments submitted funding proposals totaling $14,696,379. However, the university estimates it will collect $12,911,954 in student services fees.
Projected fees are based on enrollment.
Last fall, UTRGV reports showed 27,809 students enrolled.
Nick Weimer, assistant vice president for Student Success, served as the Student Fee Advisory Committee chair.
“It was informative for me to learn about the university processes and for recommending how student fees should be allocated for the university,” Weimer said in an interview last Thursday. “All of the members of the committee were great people to work with. Very active student involvement from the five student members and our staff and faculty members as well.”
The single request not being recommended for funding is Advancing Engineering and Computer Science STEM Literacy.
Weimer told The Rider the request was a new program being proposed and having a limited amount of revenue did not allow the committee to recommend full funding for everything.
“This was one where I think the committee determined there were funds that were potentially available for that department, the College of Engineering [and Computer Science],” he said. “It was recommended that they try to internally fund this initiative as opposed to using student fees for it.”
For Fiscal Year 2019, the SFAC recommends allocating $7,546,602.71 to Athletics, which is 58.45 percent of the total allocation of student services fees.
Athletics requested $8,582,828, but the SFAC recommends a $1,036,225.29 reduction in order to balance the budget and fund other student activities supported by the committee.
According to the SFAC recommendations, the committee is “concerned about the proportion of fees allocated to Athletics in comparison to other student programs/activities.”
“The committee had to make reductions,” Weimer said. “[It] made reductions to probably over half of the requests that were made in order to balance the budget. Athletics was determined by the committee to be reduced as such a large request. … Of course, the $1 million sounds like a huge reduction, but proportionately, it’s similar to how a lot of other programs were reduced.”
The committee chair said Athletics has revenue sources available to the department for the potential loss of funding, which was about 10 percent of its FY19 request.
Jonah Goldberg, UTRGV associate athletic director for communications, told The Rider some of the revenue sources include fundraisers, corporate sponsorships and ticket sales.
Asked what the department’s thoughts were on the reduction, Goldberg replied he would have to speak with UTRGV Athletics Director Chris King for comment, but as of press time Friday, none had returned calls.
The committee also recommends breaking up the Child Development Center request into a one-time request of $124,269.16 and an ongoing request of $113,743 “with contingency that the one-time request be utilized to increase student enrollment and work on expanding to the Brownsville campus.”
Shuttle services is recommended to receive an increase of $303,480 between its Edinburg and Brownsville accounts. The committee did not agree to fully fund shuttle services’ request as the initiatives the monies would be utilized for “should be self-sustaining.”
The SFAC recommends reducing funding of the Hauser Communication Research Lab to $15,400 for operations in Edinburg and suggests a one-time FY 2019 request of $18,900 to market its services and expand operations to the Brownsville campus.
Other recommendations include reducing Leadership and Mentoring funding by $60,137.06 and Student Activities by $37,494.58; reducing funding requested by Student Success by $18,000 for faculty support stipends for course development in low-pass-rate courses. The committee suggests using other sources of funding.
To view the SFAC FY 2019 recommendations, visit utrgv.edu/sfac.
Student services fees are collected for activities that are separate from academic functions and that directly benefit students. The fees help support various programs and departments across the university that serve students.
Funding requests are divided into two sections: ongoing requests and one-time requests. Ongoing are proposals that must be funded with incoming revenue, so that they are sustained by the student services fee budget.
The SFAC is composed of 11 individuals: nine voting, one ex officio and one chair. An ex officio is a non-voting member of a body. The Student Government Association or Bailey appoints each member of the committee. Five members are students, selected by the SGA, and four are university employees, appointed by Bailey.
IAN Sumega, a chemistry junior, learned about the committee through a UTRGV Messenger email. Sumega said he decided to apply to join the SFAC to be more involved on campus.
“A lot that we took into consideration [when making recommendations] is how much [a program] impacts the students,” Sumega said.
He said the committee spent about five hours deliberating on the final recommendations before making “the best possible” decision for the allocation of funds.
Besides Weimer and Sumega, SFAC members for the 2018-2019 cycle are student representatives Peter Averack, Oscar Trujillo, Alejandro Saldivar and Denisce Palacios; university representatives Karla Loya, Marcela De León, Douglas Stoves and Hilda Silva; and ex officio Frances Rivera.
Weimer said he is proud of the committee for finding a way to fund nearly all requests.
“It was very difficult decisions to make, how to prioritize these projects one another,” he said. “I’m pleased with the outcome of the budget because, overall, I think this is going to maximize how the students’ fees are allocated to the benefit of all students on our campus.”
