The Student Fee Advisory Committee met Jan. 31 to discuss its Fiscal Year 2021 timeline and review budget requests.
The total funding requested for FY2021 is $14,796,393.64 and consists of the Fiscal Year 2021 requests totaling $14,287,017.02, FY2021 one-time requests totaling $158,065 and FY2020 one-time requests totaling $351,311.62.
The Student Fee Advisory Committee, or SFAC, exists to “advise the university president on the allocation of the student services fee,” according to its website
Student services refers to activities “separate and apart from the regularly scheduled academic functions of the institution and directly involve or benefit students,” according to Section 54.503 of the Texas Education Code.
Members of the committee include Chair Emilia Treviño; Student Representatives Raul Ordoñez, Roy Cantu, Alejandro Mendivil Alcalde, Maria Ramirez Montoya and Alexandra Smith-Macias; and University Representatives Claudia Dole, Marcela De León and Art Brownlow.
Treviño said it is important to have a Student Fee Advisory Committee in order to hear the point of view of students.
“The students get to have an opinion on how their fees are being utilized,” Treviño said.
She said the faculty and staff can give insight that students don’t have and vice versa.
During the meeting, the committee reviewed the timeline for future meetings and overall request amounts, and discussed the one-time requests for FY2020 and FY2021 and questions they had for the departments requesting money.
Treviño wrote down the questions.
Among the requests for the next fiscal year, the Athletics department is asking for $8,713,193, Leadership & Mentoring is asking for $705,607.38 and the Chess program is asking for $527,452.
Asked what she thought of the first meeting, Treviño replied it was great.
“I like the mix of students, I like the mix of faculty and staff,” she said. “I think it’s going to go very well. I love to have opinions and that’s what came out of it, so I think it’s going to be great.”
For future meetings, Treviño expects to remain on track and keep up with the schedule.
“My goal for now is to get through with the FY20 one-time requests. That way … if the request is, you know, coming up, that way we can make sure we meet deadlines for them,” she said. “Overall, to just accomplish a fair committee and make sure that everybody feels comfortable with how the requests were approved or denied.”
The next meeting is scheduled from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Friday in Life and Health Sciences Building 2.604 on the Brownsville campus and according to the timeline, the committee will deliberate all one-time funding requests and select departmental presentations. It is open to the public; however, if the committee starts deliberating then attendees must step out.
