Enhancement funding dominated discussion during Saturday's Council of Commonwealth Student Governments meeting.

Charles Gunderman, a member of the Faculty Senate Committee on Student Life, said his committee is investigating how enhancement funds -- money the University raised by cutting the gap between University Park tuition and Commonwealth campus tuition -- are being spent.

The University uses the roughly $2 million it raises yearly in enhancement funds to improve parking and student services at the Commonwealth campuses.

The University created enhancement funds in 1985 when it began to raise tuition at Commonwealth campuses. That year in-state tuition at University Park cost $316 more than in-state Commonwealth campus tuition. By 1988 the University had closed the gap to $166. Since then, the University has reduced the gap to $126, and the administration has used the funds it raised from the latest reduction to update Commonwealth campus computer systems.

University guidelines allocate the funds among three categories: salaries and wages; recreation; and student activities, Gunderman said.

"We have found some discrepancies," he said. "On one campus 74 percent is going to salaries." Gunderman said this concerns his committee because the fund is intended to provide enhancements for students.

Ken Varcoe, assistant vice president of student affairs, said only faculty members whose jobs fall within enhancement-fund guidelines may be paid from the fund.

Gunderman said funds can be used in several areas including funding academic and student support staffs, enriching student environment and increasing student involvement.

"Someone involved with student activities, an adviser or someone in athletics are all legitimate," Varcoe said. "Someone in engineering or security would not be acceptable."

Varcoe said enhancement funds allocated to campuses are not excluded from budget cuts.

"If the total University has to give money back," he said, "it isn't reasonable to say any money will be excluded."

Varcoe said when the general funds budget of a campus is cut, enhancement funds might be used to replace pre-existing funds.

"This fund should not take the place of already existing funds," he said.

In other business, Scott Kretchmar and Lee Upcraft of the Taskforce On Undergraduate Education gave CCSG the chance to participate in a survey on undergraduate educational experiences.

"We have created an instrument to try to gather information on what's going well and what could be better at Penn State," Kretchmar said. The survey will be used at all University campuses, he said.

The survey is broken into areas such as classroom experiences, faculty, student effort and general attitudes.

"We want to know more about the student beyond age and general information," Upcraft said.