May 22, 1997

Memo to: Chancellor David Johnson

From: John Bowers, Director of Computing Services
Jason Kohler, President of MCSA

Subject: Recommendations for technology fee allocation procedures


Based upon the agreement made in the Tuition Task Force meeting of May 14, we have developed the following procedures for allocating each year's revenues from the new mandatory student technology fee. We bring these recommended procedures to you for approval.

Allocation Timeline

Because affected units such as Computing Services, Briggs Library, and Media Services must use the summer to make major changes in labs, classrooms, and other public facilities, the process described here makes final allocation decisions by the end of each academic year for the following academic year. Thus, proposals will be made in February 1998, and allocations made in May 1998, for the expenditure of technology fee revenues that will actually be received and deposited during the 1998-99 academic year.

Proposals

Project proposals will be solicited and received until February 28 of each year. Proposals may be made by any member or segment of the UMM community, including units, disciplines, student organizations, individual students, staff, or faculty. University of Minnesota budget procedures will require that any student proposals have a faculty or staff partner.

A Web page will be provided that will contain proposal guidelines and an interactive proposal form. E mail proposals will also be accepted. All submitted proposals become public information, and proposals will be made available for review on the UMM Web site and at the Briggs Library reserve desk.

Proposals must contain the following information:
-- Proposer's name(s)
-- Description of proposed project
-- Itemized budget

Any proposals received after February 28 will be held for the next year's fee allocation.

Review

The review/consultation period lasts two months and ends April 30. The President of MCSA and the Director of Computing Services are responsible for consulting with their constituent groups during this period. These constituent groups include the MCSA, other student organizations, the Academic Support Services Committee, the Campus Resource and Planning Committee, the division chairs, the vice chancellors, staff in affected units, and others.

Because all submitted proposals are available for public review on the UMM Web site and at the library reserve desk, any member of the UMM community may review them and may make comments to either the MCSA President or the Director of Computing Services.

As comments are received during this period, the President of MCSA and the Director of Computing Services will be expected to be in communication with each other, sharing information and developing preliminary priorities. They may not unilaterally change submitted proposals. However, if they believe a submitted proposal would have a better chance at funding if it is revised, they may jointly agree to contact the proposer and suggest changes. If the proposer agrees, the proposal may be changed. If the proposer doesn't agree, the change may not be made.

Allocation Recommendations

The President of MCSA and the Director of Computing Services will meet beginning in early in May to prepare their final joint recommendations to be forwarded to the Chancellor.

The allocation recommendations must be jointly agreed upon. No proposal may be recommended for funding if it does not have the support of both parties.

No funding may ever be allocated without a properly submitted proposal. Proposals should be fully funded whenever possible; partial funding of proposals should be reserved for extraordinary circumstances.

Recommendations may be made in favor of multi-year and permanent proposals. If such a proposal is funded, the funding may not be rescinded in a future year unless the proposer requests it. (Of course, the Chancellor does have the authority to rescind such funding.)

The Director and the President will seek to complete written joint recommendations by May 15. The recommendations will then go to the full MCSA for approval. The MCSA may approve or disapprove the recommendations, but may not amend them. If the recommendations are disapproved, the Director and the President will meet again to develop new recommendations.

After MCSA approval, the joint recommendations will be given to the Chancellor, who has final decision-making authority and may make alterations to the recommendations. Ideally, the Chancellor will make a final decision before the end of the academic year.

Guidelines

The President of MCSA, the Director of Computing Services, the Chancellor, and all who review and comment on technology fee proposals should bear in mind the following guidelines for allocations.

Projects must provide direct, visible benefits to UMM students.
Projects should make new investments in technological infrastructure, equipment, and services ("new" may be interpreted to also mean expansion of existing investments).
Recommended projects should provide maximum benefits to the maximum number of students.
Projects must be for technology: for example, hardware, software, networking, access, support services, and data.
Funded projects must fall inside the parameters of technology which is supported at UMM.

Accounting

Fee revenues are to be maintained in a central UMM account with sub-organization codes for each funded project. The sub-organization codes will give signature authority for a specified amount of funding to successful proposers. All expenditures must adhere to University of Minnesota budget and procurement procedures.

Expenditures may be made only for items which were part of the approved proposal's itemized budget. Proposers may not spend more than their project budget. If there are excess funds remaining in the project budget at the end of the fiscal year, those funds are to be returned to the technology fee pool for new allocation. Proposers may not, under any circumstances, spend excess funds on items which were not part of the proposed project budget.

All successful proposers must make a written accounting of expenditures at the beginning of each quarter (or semester) during the funding year. The accounting will be reviewed by MCSA and will be public information available on the UMM Web site and at the Briggs Library reserve desk.

As stated in the Academic Support Services Committee resolution that initiated consideration of a student technology fee on this campus, the technology fee should supplement and not replace existing technology budgets and responsibilities at UMM. Although it's clear that from year to year, no guarantees can be made about the possibility of required University budget reallocations, it should be continually remembered by decision-makers that the intent of the fee is to provide new funds for technology investment. Central budget allocations to affected technology units on campus should not in any case be reduced simply because they received fee money. This would be a fundamental violation of the intent of the fee, and would have the effect of unfairly diverting earmarked fee funds toward purposes for which it was not intended. The technology fee should not ever be used as a pool of money available to resolve UMM budgetary difficulties that are unrelated to technology.