The team assigned to spend the money gained by Cal Poly’s Student Success Fee is set to begin a month-long process that will potentially end with more classes for students.
The 11-person group, which includes seven students, held an initial meeting April 26 to determine how to best move forward in allocating the revenue brought in by the fee. Under the leadership of co-chairs Kiyana Tabrizi, the Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) president, and Larry Kelley, the vice president of administration and finance, the group decided to use a campus-wide poll via students’ My Cal Poly Portal to gain feedback on students’ needs.
“(The poll) is to give every student an opportunity to voice where they think the funding priorities are,” Tabrizi said.
The Student Success Fee, which students narrowly favored in an advisory referendum last quarter, will bring an estimated $8 million to the university next year. As part of the fee’s three-year implementation phase, students will begin paying $160 per quarter next fall. That fee will increase yearly until it reaches its permanent cap at $260 per quarter in 2014.
Cal Poly Provost Kathleen Enz Finken, who began working at the university in February, will follow in the footsteps of her predecessor, Robert Koob, who initially proposed the fee. Enz Finken said she expects much of the money will go toward providing additional class offerings and furthering the Learn By Doing experience.
“It’s going to impact us significantly,” Enz Finken said of the fee. “A large part of that money — based on the initial proposal and the approval that has gone to the Chancellor’s Office and the student voice in that vote — was soundly behind putting dollars behind providing classes for students.”
A governor’s tax proposal that will come before voters in November may interrupt those plans. The proposal gives California’s citizens a choice: raise taxes or face millions of dollars in budget cuts at state universities.
Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong said he has kept a close eye on the proposal since its inception. If voters do not pass the measure, he said, Cal Poly could see a $12 million cut as part of larger budget loss in the California State University system.
“It’s a real problem — you cannot underestimate the magnitude of the problem,” Armstrong said. “Cal Poly has been managed well for a long time. We have one-time money that can help us get through another 12 months. But that really means 2012-13 will be very difficult if this full reduction occurs.”
Because of this looming second scenario in which voters turn down the tax increase, Armstrong said he will encourage the allocation committee to create two different plans. One, he said, would include the $8 million in increased funding without any cuts. The other would anticipate a $4 million loss, the estimated difference between the Student Success Fee and the governor’s possible trigger cut.
But Tabrizi said she believes one plan will suffice. She said Cal Poly has already lost so much money, another round of state cuts won’t force a major difference.
“Our times are so tough that I think we’re already there in the worst situation,” Tabrizi said. “So even if we get worse, I think we’re there. I think we’re planning for that horrible situation, so I don’t really see many of the priorities being different.”
Instead, Tabrizi said she wants to focus the committee’s short amount of time on a combination of outreach strategy and planning for where the fee’s income will be spent.
Interim Vice President for Student Affairs Preston Allen sent an email to students last week to inform them of the survey on their My Cal Poly Portal that asks for responses to how students want the money to be spent. The survey, which is available through Tuesday afternoon, allows students to vote for initiatives such as increased access to classes and labs, more Learn By Doing and interdisciplinary opportunities and increasing diversity on campus. It also features an “other” option for students to voice their own priorities.
Tabrizi said the survey will help the allocation committee as it moves forward in creating a plan for the Student Success Fee’s initial implementation in the fall.
“Once we get those recommendations from that poll, the group will reconvene; we’ll look over those results, and we’ll pass them on to the vice presidents,” she said.
The vice presidents — including Kelley, the committee co-chair — will look at specific ways to implement the students’ ideas once the poll’s results are in.
Tabrizi said she has set a tentative deadline for the allocation committee to be finished with its work by the end of May. This year’s committee is only responsible for determining how the revenue will be spent through next spring; a new group will be responsible for the money after that.
The next committee will have several new players, including ASI President-elect Katie Morrow. She will co-chair the committee and be one of seven students sitting on it. Morrow said the other six will most likely be the top vote-getters from each college’s representatives on the ASI Board of Directors.
Morrow said she looks forward to taking an entire year to work on finding the best way to spend the following year’s Student Success Fee income.
“I’m excited I can start in summer looking at that,” Morrow said. “I can start as soon as the allocation committee is decided. I went to the last meeting (of the current allocation committee), and I’m going to the next one. I just kind of sit on the side of listen. So I’m ready.”
Once the allocation committee is finished, Armstrong will review the findings and make his final determination of where the money will be spent. Morrow said she will work with Armstrong to ensure the spending process is transparent and records are easily accessible to students.