SUBOA Meeting Minutes: April 23-24, 2003

April 23-24, 2003 Meeting Minutes

In attendance (for part or all of the meeting): Albany - Kathryn K. Lowery & Leo F. Neveu; Alfred - Ceramics - Brice M. Weigman; Binghamton - Anthony A. Ferrara & James Van Voorst; Brockport - Greig W. Mitchell; Buffalo Center - Kevin R. Seitz & Mike LeVine; Buffalo College - Stanley Kardonsky & Rebecca J. Schenk; Cobleskill - Gary Miller; Cornell Statutory Colleges - John A. Lambert; Cortland - William E. Shaut; Delhi - Barbara Larson; Empire State - Dennis C. Belt & William C. Ferrero; Environmental Science & Forestry - Connie S. Webb; Farmingdale - George P. LaRosa & Richard J. Hume; Fredonia - Tracy S. Bennett; Geneseo - Kenneth H. Levison; Maritime - Kimberly R. Cline; New Paltz - Johanna D'Aleo; Oneonta - Leif S. Hartmark; Optometry - David A. Bowers; Oswego - Nicholas A. Lyons; Plattsburgh - John R. Homburger; Potsdam - David Kirwan; Purchase - Judith Nolan; Stony Brook - Richard L. Mann; Utica/IT - Bruce E. Reichel; Construction Fund - Robert Haelen & Jim Biggane; System Administration and Guests -Brian T. Stenson, Dick Miller, Tom Malone, John Crane, Joanne M. Fazioli, Patrick J. Wiater; Cindi Safford-Dingman, Steve Smith, Jim Campbell, Carol Berber & Mary Frieberg

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Presidents Report - David Bowers
Meeting called to order at 1:10 p.m.

Barbara Larson, new Business Officer at Delhi, was introduced.
David Bowers sent Brian Stenson a letter, dated February 7, 2003, asking that the auditor's engagement period for campus-related entities be extended from 3 to 5 years. There has been no official response. However, David believes the request was accepted and will be presented to the SUNY Trustees at their April 29 meeting.
David sent the Tuition Paper to Vice Chancellors Miller, Stenson, and Richter on March 19. Mr. Miller replied, stating that the paper would be forwarded to the Chancellor and senior staff. He also referenced the recently submitted paper by the Faculty Senate on a rational funding policy for SUNY. He welcomed SUBOA's continued participation in such matters.
On February 11 a letter was sent to Joyce Villa regarding her retirement and acknowledging all her assistance to campuses generally and SUBOA members specifically.
Annual meeting survey resulted in 2 to 1 preference for EACUBO in Toronto in October (15 Toronto, 7 Nashville, 7 neither; total 29).
David asked that the sector meetings address two items:

list of SUCF issues for Haelen and Biggane on Thursday; and
discussion of SUNY Fee Policy Item 050 for vote at end of Wednesday's session.

We started at 1:00 p.m. sharp with David welcoming everyone and announcing that we had a busy agenda ahead of us. David began by introducing Mr. Gary Miller as the new Interim Vice President at Cobleskill. David announced that dinner would be at the Barnsider and reaffirmed the directions.

Secretary's Report - John R. Homburger
John Homburger called for a motion to accept the minutes and Ken Levison moved to approve the minutes; seconded by Connie Webb. The motion was unanimously approved.

Treasurer's Report - Brice M. Weigman
The Treasurer's report indicates today's balance is $2,840.67 in the SUBOA shares account and $21,851.53 in the checking account. There are no deposits in transit. All but three checks lost in an errant deposit have been received and deposited. The missing checks are from: Aramark ($1,000); Cardiff ($1,500); Bonadio ($1,000). Bryce will follow-up with Jim Poole on the audited books.

SECTOR MEETINGS

Comprehensive Colleges and Colleges of Technology - Ken Levison
Fee Policy Review
Leif Hartmark reflected on the work of the Committee started over a year ago with Accounting/Budget/Bursar and gave special credits to Joanne Fazioli, Leo Neveu, and Rebecca Schenk for their patience and good work.

A complete review was taken with numerous changes made from comments and recommendations. After reviewing the fee revenue buy out, the impact was determined to be "a difference that doesn't make a difference". Including it as part of the revenue target actually has a positive impact where salaries are involved.

There was general agreement on the fee adjustments as proposed.

SUCF
It was felt that we need clarification on using M&R funds for direct payroll charges vs. subsequent journaling of expenditures related to specific projects.

"Campus Lets" continue to have issues related to prequalifying. Scheduling projects with the Fund continues to be problematic when campus needs and/or business operations are an issue.

University Centers and Statutories - Leo Neveu
Concern was expressed that the Capital Plan allocations are not done in an open manner to understand what basis is used in decision-making. A recommendation was made to clarify methodology and develop transparent process.

The 2nd Five Year Capital Plan heavily emphasizes critical maintenance.

Other issues needing more discussion include

time frame for projects
communication, finance, and programming vs. construction
slowness of closing out jobs
Some report enhancements should include report on real cash balances versus budgeted project costs, Other report enhancements could include project reserves; tracking and impact of change orders; and better, more timely updates on problem resolution.
Will campuses be able to use SUCF funds to address EPA audit findings? Again, campuses need to understand process to access funds for remediation.
What is the status of new, permanent general manager for SUCF?

The workload related to SEVIS, due to the new INS requirements, has necessitated the need to request a fee.

SUNY Business Systems Project Update

Planning for multi-year project
Hired Sandra Casey with 2 year commitment to project
OSC is becoming pickier on flexibility issues
The SUNY document retrieval system does not appear to be kept up
Campuses are looking for direction to make the monthly reporting more value oriented as management tools
SUBOA would like to have opportunity for some input on budget and recharge assessments related to HIPAA and malpractice insurance.

Chief Operating Officer's Report - Dick Miller

Dick started by introducing John Crane and Tom Malone, who will lead a task force on efficiency and effectiveness, focusing on how University Plaza serves campuses and how campuses can better serve each other through continuous improvement and sharing best practices. The review will include Research Foundation, SUCF and System Administration. Four broad issues to be reviewed include the following:

APC
Energy
Barriers to success
Analysis of previous studies (best practices)

Benchmark with other systems/colleges
Review of previous studies to help understand background and what recommendations that have been successfully implemented and/or failed, or were simply not gotten to. Documents that will be used include the IBM Study, Rethinking SUNY, and Realigning For Excellence.

February '03 - August '03: exploratory; develop questions and analysis of previous studies
September '03 - December '03: continue analysis; schedule campus visits; establish benchmarks; and identify best practices
January '04 - on: System determines best approach for continued improvement process

Despite the budget still being up in the air, Dick gave credit to Dave Richter and Michael Trunzo for doing a first class job in keeping the SUNY message in front of the legislature and Division of the Budget.
An enrollment update as of 4/19/03 indicates positive increases in all application sectors at the University Centers and Technology Colleges for Fall '03. The Comprehensive Colleges are showing some softness in applications from NYC and non-NYC Freshmen, and International Students. The transfer group (SUNY and non-SUNY) are both up at the Comprehensive Colleges.
Research Foundation activity is up.
Strategic Plan will be presented to Trustees in June.
"Realigning for Excellence" - almost everything has been implemented.
Instituted Human Resources curriculum for 40 University Plaza folks at Cornell.
Issues, codes of conduct, policies and sanctions are being reviewed pertaining to hazing and binge drinking for both recognized and non-recognized campus organizations.
The scanning equipment is installed at APC and campuses are welcome to participate and invest in the technology to enhance campus information processing.
EPA audits have been completed at Fredonia, Monroe, Cobleskill and Binghamton. Findings are available upon request.
Campuses will be exempt from the Cyber Security Policy and IT Inventory Project.
Agreement and policy changes for campus-related entities will be on Trustees' agenda next week.
Public smoking legislation may apply to dormitories - still under study.
"Assessment" continues to "boil" on issue of System-wide mandates vs. campus-based directed plans.
Risk Management - A lot of information needs to be compiled and digested. The Internal Control Program has been revitalized and will help clarify compliance issues.

SUBOA Committee Reports - Tracy Bennett

DASNY and campuses will be confronted with a major insurance premium increase from $1.3 million to $4.5 million. DASNY is reviewing options that may be able to be taken to abate some of the increase.
The Residence Hall/Student Life Symposium has a strong agenda (topics) and early reservations look very good.
More discussion needs to take place regarding reserve requirements for residence hall operations without establishing mandated standard reserves.
Reserves should be coupled with the 5-Year Capital Plans.
Legislative intervention is needed to eliminate bond covenants which require operating reserves and repair.
SICAS annual meeting should be held in May.
ITEC - supports information technology and Oracle software. Concern has been expressed over size of operating budget and annual increases. A presentation on what they do, how much it costs, and description of the budget and approval process needs to be scheduled for future SUBOA meeting.
SUNY Connect minutes were distributed from March meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 5:20 p.m.

Thursday morning - April 24, 2003

Vice Chancellor's Report - Brian Stenson
State Budget

The Governor is determined to stop any tax increase proposals and the legislature is going to consolidate to override any vetoes.
Hot points are School Aid and Medicaid - restoration of any kind will be very specifically targeted.
Tuition rates are being discussed in the $1,000 to $1,200 range - the legislature is talking about graduated tuition scales.
Campuses can expect a mid-year budget reduction action and possibly worse conditions the following year.
Campuses will be asked to prepare detailed enrollment projections without tuition increases within the next few weeks.
The BAP Advisory Committee will need to be reconvened but not sure when. The Committee will assist with applying the new variables of tuition increases and State support reductions for both tuition dependent campuses and State support dependent campuses.
Whatever action is taken to mitigate major reallocations by campus it will need to be temporary for transitional purposes in '03-'04. However, there is internal debate as to whether the collars would be transitional or permanent.
There has been no further discussion on differential tuition by degree (i.e., MBA, by Sector)
There may be a slightly different rate for Engineering degree
Cigarette money has been paid and not sure if it has been dedicated to revenue fix.
Reminder that Division of the Budget proposed an "across-the-board" tuition increase and SUNY's proposal was "graduated".
The best guess for collective bargaining: Zero. Speculation has it that GOER would not negotiate an agreement with cost in the first year, but it is possible we may see a small "goodwill increase" (say 1%) paid at mid-year FY05.
The Best Practice Review Committee has been very data/labor intensive and will also involve campuses. Focus was originally on System level and has now expanded to campuses.
The Levin Institute was briefly discussed for clarification of mission.
Paul Tucci has been assigned to Pat Wiater's Office to help support the emphasis on risk management and internal control. The intent is to increase training and provide assistance. Good luck, Paul.
A discussion on SEVIS ensued and ended with Brian asking campuses that feel they need an additional fee to support the new INS requirements and related workload to send proposals to Joanne Fazioli for review and justification.

Construction Fund - Bob Haelen/Jim Biggane

At first glance the legislature appears to be receptive to the Capital Plan.
There is a large faction that supports "lining out" projects. This will be detrimental to flexibility and slow things down.
There is $3.2 billion identified as critical maintenance in SUNY (includes community colleges); the proposed new capital budget is $2.5 billion. The split has been allocated by gross square feet of academic space by campus.
The emergency appropriation status is now in place to support "in-progress" projects.
The next Five-Year Plan is supposed to move to a "disbursement-based" financing model to reduce high-borrowed cash balances.
MR minor rehab funds may be released soon - SUCF is trying to access hard dollar appropriation for small projects with emphasis on health and safety-related critical maintenance.
Funds availability for design/builds restricted to a per project basis.
There is a "quiet construction" bill in Senate and Assembly limiting construction schedules to when school is not in session. This is not good.
The project design shelf is backed up awaiting the next release of capital funds.
The Capital Advisory Group meeting will be in Oneonta. David Bowers will share list of concerns collected from campuses with Bob Haelen for the June meeting.

Government Relations Update - Jim Campbell

Meningitis will become an issue; trying NOT to let it become an unfunded mandate. Health Department may require a pamphlet be distributed to ALL students.
Smoking bill is still treating residence halls as private residence (to be revisited).
Sweatshop/apparel legislation is adding equipment to existing requirement.
Appears to be additional capital for dental schools
Tuition indexing and differential seem to have fallen off the table
Trustees approved legislation to allow all State employees payroll deduction for college foundation donations.
House Ways and Means and Senate Finance do seem to understand that, if tuition is less than $1,200, they "would have to buy-back" the revenue shortfall through an increased state allocation in order to keep SUNY whole.

Internal Control Program - Pat Wiater

A program update was handed out covering:

An overview as it currently exists
Recent audit results
Recent changes to the program

Paul Tucci was introduced as the new principal to head up the Internal Control Program. Paul will also be responsible for coordinating the Residence Hall Financing Program.
Pat highlighted some of the recent audit findings and related deficiencies.
The hope or intent is to integrate Internal Control Program with System Internal Audit.
Best approach to Internal Control Program is to use what you have.
SUBOA membership praised the NACUBO materials that were distributed to campuses.

HIPAA Presentation - Steve Smith

HIPAA is NOT funded and is NOT going away.
47 campuses have received extensions until October 2003.
The cost of implementing the program was $630,000. After deducting the 5 initial campus shares, the balance was distributed to all campuses.
Ongoing annual costs for HIPAA are budgeted at $149,000.
There needs to be a Privacy Officer regardless of campus size. It is NOT a full-time job.
The Security Officer should be technically savvy and should NOT be the Privacy Officer.
There should be coordination between Research Foundation and SUNY - many similar and related issues.
Student Health Services would be considered under HIPAA if it contracts out functions such as blood tests.

Concluding Remarks David took a few minutes to discuss the annual meeting and the general feeling about attending the EACUBO meeting in Toronto. Because of SARS, the response ranged from apprehensive to "not going". Dick Mann proposed having an annual meeting this summer in lieu of connecting it with either NACUBO or EACUBO meetings. If we are required to have another meeting related to Budget, we should consider an "out-of-Albany" experience.

Motion to accept the "in lieu of" annual meeting was made by Dick Mann; seconded by Ken Levison. The "in lieu of " motion passed.

Meeting adjourned at 11:29 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

John R. Homburger,
Secretary

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