DRAC Minutes 03/07/18
Meeting started at 9:00
Attendance: Rebecca McLean, Christopher Bianco, Erin Emry, Korry Harvey, Bidisha Biswas, Julia Rutledge, Sam Ortiz, Jaden Moon, Keith Harmon, Bailey Ellis, Heather Dalberg, Megan McGinnis, Paden Koltiska, Namarea Randolph, Jim DeWilde
Minutes to be approved at later time
Budget Presentations:
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Forensics
- There will be a $5000 increase in travel this year due to increase in cost of airfare and lodging
- Correction needs to be made to change the 0% change between FY17 and FY18 to 3% on the DRAC Budget Compilation sheet
- Rebecca recognized a keying error in the budget for income from external revenue.
- Bianco mentions that 3% is theoretically an okay number for this year as there is a 4% cap on the increase in tuition.
- It was brought the committees attention that travel is the base of forensics funding.
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IAA
- They will be keeping the same budget as last year
- There costs come from travel and from conference fees.
- Instead of asking for more DRAC money, they are planning to have a 20-40% increase in student fees to mitigate the increase in expenses.
- The membership this year is 18 students, with only 2 graduating with an expected increase in participation next year.
- They are currently seeking tactics to keep costs low such as getting airfare early and doing group travel.
- Harvey recommends that since a student is booking the travel, they should document their process so the information can be passed on when said student graduates.
- They will be keeping the same budget as last year
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Theater and Dance
- There is an increase this year in salaries and wages, fringe benefit expenses, and contracts (personal service expenses).
- Erin mentioned that if Theatre and Dance didn’t receive the requested funding from S & A, the department would need to start with cuts to the student travel stipend. The largest student conference, The Kennedy Center American Theatre Festival, was in Spokane, WA in 2018 – but with the destination for the conference being out of state in 2019 she anticipates fewer students will attend making this line item the most logical place to reduce funding if necessary.
- There is an expected $10,000 increase for summer theater since the department is bringing in Blessed Unrest, a professional company, to put on shows this summer.
- Bailey gave a personal testament how this would bring professional experience to the theater students and that it is great for resume building.
- Paden also claimed how critical summer theater is for freshman who are new to the theater department.
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Music
- Currently the music department is supporting the Viking Band Director, however they are in the process of getting support through an Emergent Needs Proposal in order to get the Viking Director’s salary off of student fees funds.
- Major costs for the music department are the music library, recording studio, and student salaries. These aren’t expected to increase.
- The department always has costs with instruments they could replace which they normally buy with 10% for reserves.
- Dr. Bianco recognized that the budget isn’t balanced out as it is showing a $7,000 deficit in the music department’s budget.
- Heather explained how the recording studio is run by students and how it is difficult to manage. Therefore, they hired a professional manager for the studio as normally students would graduate and then be replaced by new managers with less experience.
- Erin asked about the $8 fee for student recital recordings and whether it goes back into the DRAC fund. Heather explained that the $8 goes to a separate fund which is meant to cover the costs of purchasing the disks and uploading the footage onto the disks.
Paden moved to adjourn, Bailey seconded. Meeting ended at 9:50
A major note that came from this discussion was that S&A is focused more on student salaries than travel, yet there is a misconception that travel isn’t utilized to enhance student experiences, which many members of our DRAC committee can attest to.
Harmon gave the recommendation to have programs make up a qualitative assessment to talk about the benefits of the program in order to shift the focus from numbers to the actual benefits of the program.