IT Services
Student Technology Fee

FY09 Technology Fee Management Plan
September 2007

PURPOSE

The general computer technology fee approved by the Board of Education at the March 13, 2002 meeting created a new source of revenue for the college. The FY09 plan is intended to provide general information about the technology fee, specific management guidelines and instructions for applying for funding.

FUND MANAGEMENT

The AVP for Information Technology manages the fund for the college. During the first five years of operation the principal fund objectives were clarified. In order of priority, they are:

• Adequately maintain existing student-used technology
• Provide increased student access to existing technology
• Establish a student technology reserve fund
• Fund new technology

CRITERIA

Requests for funding with the general computer technology fee will be ranked using these criteria:

• Technology that impacts students
  This criterion gives priority to uses that provide the greatest benefit to the greatest number of students.
• Alignment with college plans
  This criterion gives priority to uses that support college plans and initiatives like the college strategic directions or governance council approved strategic plans.
• Resources available to the requesting unit
  This criterion recognizes that some units have multiple sources of funding available (course fees for instance) or have received student technology fee support in the recent past. It gives priority to units without other funding sources or that have not recently received technology fee funding.
• Professional judgment
  This criterion allows the members of the committee to exercise some degree of professional judgment as they rank requests.

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

A portion of each year's revenue is reserved to maintain the fiscal stability of the fund. For FY08 the committee reserved 4.5% for bad debt, 8% for a student technology reserve fund and 5.0% for contingency.

The bad debt reserve percentage is fixed by college policy; the committee re-evaluates the other percentages each year. The reserve fund reached acceptable levels during FY04 and maintained them during FY05; therefore, the committee did not recommend adding to it in FY06 - FY08. The contingency will be used to fund emergency requests received during the 2007 - 08 academic year.

PROCESS

The AVP for Information Technology, in consultation with the Student Technology Fee Committee, will manage the FY09 funding process.

Annual funding process:

• This process coincides with the college budgeting cycle.
• Requests for FY09 are submitted as part of the Unit Planning process.
• A contact person must be included with each request in case additional information is required.
• Requests will be reviewed and ranked by the committee.
• The committee will make recommendations to the AVP for IT.
• Decision on funding requests will be announced around February 15, 2008.
• FY08 decisions were delayed significantly by the college budget reduction process. There is no guarantee against this happening again in the future.

Contingency funding process, similar to the annual funding process, except:

• Contingency requests may be submitted at any time during the year.
• Contingency allocations are made for emergencies only.
• Requests must be submitted by a departmental manager.
• The AVP for IT will review and approve contingency requests.
• Submit requests online

FUND GUIDELINES

• Funds are applied to instructional computer technology uses (as opposed to, for example, automotive technology ).
• Funds may be used for hourly lab assistants, but cannot be used to fund any salaried positions. Funding for hourly lab assistants will not be expanded. The budget reduction and layoff process of FY06 is currently complicating the issue of hourly positions.
• All expenditures must remain in the technology fund (that is, the FUND code used on all expenses must be 926500).
• Any department funding allocation remaining at the end of each fiscal year will be returned into the technology fund (that is, there is no departmental carryover).
• Any expenditure in excess of the approved allocation is the responsibility of the department.
• Collaborative initiatives are encouraged.
• Funds may be used only for the approved purposes.

FY08 COLLEGE DECISIONS

• The college decided to use a large portion of the technology fee to help with the budget shortfall. A number of contracted classified technology support positions will be funded with tech fee revenue for one year in order to relieve the general fund and assist with balancing the FY08 budget.