The Fee Allocation Board (FAB), the new entity overseeing the distribution of the student activity fee, will begin seeking student nominations in mid-October, Michael Gilbert, assistant vice president of Campus Student Services, said Monday.
Once the nomination process is completed, there will be ongoing applicant interviews throughout the month of November, Gilbert said.
Training and orientation for the new members will take place the first week of December. The entire board selection process will be completed by the end of the fall semester in preparation for its inaugural use in spring 2007.
Under the new board, groups receiving funding from the student activity fee will be able to submit budget proposals between the 4th and 8th week of the spring semester. Groups submitting proposals will be invited to an open discussion with FAB.
The groups will then be notified in early March as to the board's decision on their request.
"The Fee Allocation Board anticipates that demands for funds will grow," Gilbert said.
FAB will consist of seven voting student representatives, one of which must be a graduate student, who will undergo the selection process. There will also be three voting faculty representatives appointed by Vicky Triponey, vice president of Student Affairs.
One non-voting student chair and Gilbert, who will act as a non-voting staff adviser, will oversee the board.
The new board will entertain requests for funding, and will give requesting groups the ability to petition for increased allocations.
It will then allocate funding to the University Park Allocation Committee (UPAC), the newly created Student Programming Association and directly to other major budget items, such as Bryce Jordan Center concerts.
Liz Roosa Millar, director at the Center for Student Activities and Programming, said both the Student Programming Association and FAB will be involved in the student activity fee process beginning next year.
The selection committee will be a "predominantly" student committee, consisting of "roughly" five students and two faculty members, Gilbert said.
Gilbert said he felt FAB "increases accountability" and stressed that students will benefit from the public hearing format offered by the board.
Of the change to a public forum for hearing requests, UPAC Chairman Greg Heleniak said private meetings with only student groups -- and no one else present -- were "in the requesters' interest."
"If [the discussion is] not public, the requesters can be more relaxed when they're presenting to the board," he said.
Heleniak said UPAC would continue to hear requests from student groups to which it would be allocating the funding that UPAC will receive from FAB.
While he does not take issue with the FAB selection process, Heleniak has expressed displeasure with the formation of the Fee Allocation Board in the past. "It essentially went from a group of 35 students [hearing budget requests] to a group of three faculty and seven students," Heleniak said.
