female students

CLA Student Technology Fee
110 Anderson Hall
257 19th Avenue SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

E-mail: techfees@umn.edu

Operating Guidelines

In 1996-97, the College of Liberal Arts instituted an undergraduate student Infotech fee. Its goal is to provide an excellent educational computing environment for undergraduate students in the college.

In 2003-04, the College of Liberal Arts instituted a graduate student Infotech Fee. With a similar goal as the original undergraduate fee, it focuses on providing an exceptional instructional and research computing environment for graduate students in the college.

The purpose of the CLA Student Technology Fee Committee is to advise the dean of the college on the expenditure of instructional technology funds collected through undergraduate and graduate computer fees reflected in the document below.

Guidelines for use of CLA Computer Fee Funds

  • Multi-year Commitments: Student computer fees shall be used to fund ongoing technology needs of the college that support its educational mission, such as equipping, maintaining, upgrading, and staffing open access computer labs and classrooms and instructional support units such as the Language Center, the Center for Writing, CLA Studios, and CLA Student Services as well as placing instructional technology graduate student fellows in departments to educate and encourage faculty use of technology. The CLA Office of the Dean and the CLA Office of Information Technology will consult with the committee on projected expenditures in its long-range informational technology plan. The college’s Office of Information Technology oversees these multi-year commitments.
  • New Initiatives: Student computer fees shall also be used to support start-up proposals (such as "Instructional Improvement Proposals," "Computer Access Proposals," and "Digital Content Initiatives") for undergraduate and graduate student computing and computer facilities, increasing the use of technology and computers, and enhancements and innovations for instruction through computer technology. The committee itself may initiate proposals and may solicit proposals from students, faculty, and staff in the college. The CLA Student Technology Fee Committee shall formulate recommendations to the dean of the college for disposition of these proposals.
  • CLA student computer fees shall be used to fund the expenses of the committee, including SEE and staff salaries, subject to the approval of the dean of the college.
  • CLA student computer fees shall not be used for budgeted faculty or staff salaries not directly related to integrating digital technology into the college's undergraduate educational mission or increasing students' access to digitally-supported instruction.
  • Hardware and software purchased using CLA student computer fees funds shall be used solely to advance the integration of digital technology into the college's educational mission and to increase students' access to digitally-supported instruction.
  • Unless for purposes authorized by the committee and the dean, equipment and software purchased using CLA student computer fees may not be installed in a faculty or staff office during the first three years of its service life.

Membership of the Committee

Membership of the committee shall consist of no more than five faculty or staff, no more than ten undergraduate students from the College of Liberal Arts (including one representative from the CLA Student Board), no more than four graduate students, for a total of no more than 14 students. Students, staff, and faculty who are not official members of the committee may attend meetings but will not have voting power. [E.g., the dean of the college may send representatives to meetings of the committee in a non-voting capacity. Similarly, any student interested in how CLA student computer fees are invested may attend committee meetings in a non-voting capacity. Committee members may invite guests to attend the meetings in a non-voting capacity.] Ex-officio members also comprise the committee and include staff from areas such as: CLA-OIT, DMC, VRC, ADCS, Language Center, and Libraries. They do not have voting power but are vital to the committee for information and clarification on technology equipment, uses, and values for CLA.

Nomination of Committee Members

The CLA Student Board shall recruit students, announcements in classes, posters around campus, encouragement by current committee members, and the CLA Student Technology Fee Committee web site. The committee shall provide the application forms to those seeking committee memberships. In April of each year, the committee shall provide a slate of faculty and student nominees for the upcoming year to the dean of the college for approval and appointment. Faculty and staff members shall be appointed to staggered two-year terms. Student members shall serve one-year terms and may apply for re-appointment. When there are vacant seats on the committee, eligible candidates may apply for appointment to the committee at any time during the academic year.

Committee Member Role

The dean of the college shall appoint a faculty or staff co-chair of the CLA Student Technology Fee Committee. The faculty or staff co-chair will call meetings, compose agendas, and facilitate meetings. The faculty or staff co-chair may vote on issues brought forward to the committee.

The undergraduate student members of the committee shall elect by majority vote the undergraduate student co-chair of the committee. The graduate student members of the committee shall elect by majority vote the graduate student co-chair of the committee. The undergraduate and graduate student co-chairs and the faculty or staff co-chair shall meet to plan committee meetings, discuss committee action, review expenditures and assets, etc. The student co-chairs may also facilitate general meetings and call student meetings. The student co-chairs may vote on issues brought forward to the committee. An undergraduate and graduate student vice-chair shall serve as student co-chair when the student co-chairs are not available.

Student and faculty or staff members shall attend regular meetings and other meetings that require a vote. Representatives may be asked to serve on sub-committees that should consist of at least one faculty or staff member, one undergraduate, and one graduate student member. Appointed members may not vote until after attendance at one full meeting.

For committee discussions, a quorum comprises a majority (over 50%) of student members and a majority of faculty/staff members and can include directed proxy votes. For votes to recommend the allocation of resources, a quorum of 2/3 of the faculty/staff members and 2/3 of the student members is required, and proxy votes are not accepted.

Should the result of a vote only affect graduate students, then only faculty, staff, and graduate student members will participate in the vote. Should the result of a vote only affect undergraduate students, then only faculty, staff, and undergraduate student member votes will participate in the vote. Votes on issues related to both undergraduate and graduate computing in the college will be accepted from all members of the committee.

Persons serving as committee members who are employed by the committee may not vote on matters pertaining to their own employment. Any member who misses three consecutive meetings will be removed from the committee.

The committee shall develop and maintain a system for reviewing proposals, recommending the allocation of funds, reviewing revenues and expenditures, and monitoring and reporting annually on the implementation of technological projects that serve the purpose of enhancing the academic experience for undergraduate CLA students.

Accountability and Fiscal Responsibility

The committee shall make all recommendations involving expenditures in a fiscally responsible manner. The committee will review the college's long-term informational technology planning, decide on specific goals that they as a committee hope to accomplish, project the costs to meet these goals, solicit proposals, and review proposals and expenditures periodically. All elements of this process may be amended if deemed necessary by the committee and subject to the approval of the dean of the college.

The committee shall report expenditures, policies, and procedures publicly for review by CLA students. This will be done routinely through the committee's web site and in response to special requests. All meetings will be documented and the minutes of these meetings will also be posted on the committee's web site.

The co-chairs of the CLA Student Technology Fee Committee shall review all policies, procedures, expenditures, and revenues periodically. Periodic full budget review will be conducted by: all members of the CLA Student Technology Fee Committee, representatives from the Office of Academic Technologies, College of Liberal Arts Office of Information Technology, CLA Undergraduate Programs, CLA Graduate Programs, and the CLA Fiscal Administration. The budget review document will be submitted to the college dean for approval.