Agenda - Regular Meeting Finance & Infrastructure Committee Board of Regents for Higher Education Wednesday, April 29, 2020 @10:00 a.m. CONDUCTED VIA WEBEX REMOTE PARTICIPATION 1-877-668-4493 Call-in toll-free number Meeting number/access code): 224 648 467 Agenda 1. Declaration of Quorum 2. Approval of Joint Minutes for Finance & Infrastructure Committee and Human Resources & Administration Committee from the March 11, 2020 Meeting 3. Information Item a) Fiscal Impacts of Corona Virus Pandemic BOARD OF REGENTS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION JOINT MEETING OF FINANCE & INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE HUMAN RESOURCES & ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE Wednesday, March 11, 2020 @10:30 a.m. Regents Boardroom System Office, 61 Woodland Street, Hartford, CT 06105 COMMITTEE MEMBERS PARTICIPATING Richard J. Balducci, Chair – Finance & Infrastructure Naomi Cohen, Chair – Human Resources & Administration (via teleconference) Felice Gray-Kemp (via teleconference) David R. Jimenez (via teleconference) JoAnn Ryan (via teleconference) CSCU STAFF PARTICIPATING Ben Barnes, Chief Financial Officer Andrew Kripp, Vice President of Human Resources Keith Epstein, Vice President of Facilities, Real Estate & Infrastructure Planning Joe Tolisano, Chief Information Officer Greg DeSantis, Executive Director of CSCU Student Success Center & Academic Initiatives CALL TO ORDER With a quorum present, Chairman Balducci called the meeting to order at 10:32 a.m. APPROVAL OF JANUARY 29, 2020 MINUTES FROM THE FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING AND JANUARY 23, 2020 MINUTES FROM THE HUMAN RESOURCES & ADMINISTRATION MEETING Regent Jimenez moved, seconded by Regent Ryan, the minutes of the January 29, 2020 Finance Committee meeting were unanimously approved as submitted. Regent Balducci moved, seconded by Regent Jimenez, the minutes of the January 23, 2020 Human Resources and Administration Committee meeting were unanimously approved as submitted. 4-29-2020 Finance & Infrastructure Agenda Packet Page 1 of 7 Information Items • CSCU 2020 Semi-annual Report VP Epstein provided a status report and progress on numerous projects that are being performed under CSCU 2020 at the universities. The bulk of the $4 million awarded to the State universities will be spent by end of summer 2020. Since the inception of the CSCU 2020 program, an estimated $850 million has been spent on campus projects and renovations. • Guided Pathways Implementation CFO Barnes provided a fiscal summary and outline for the implementation of a Holistic Case Management Advising policy at the CSCU Community Colleges that will be rolled out over a three-year period. The program is designed to provide an advisor and support staff to all degree and certificate seeking students to ensure they stay on track to completion. The policy is one of the primary pillars of Guided Pathways to improve completion rates and close the achievement gap. The estimated cost is $3 million in the first year of the program. Funding for implementation of this advisement program at three community colleges this fall, with additional colleges coming on-line over the two following years. A full-scale implementation at the 12 colleges could produce an additional $20 million or more and increase full-time equivalent enrollment by 20%. Conservative assumptions predict that Guided Pathways will pay for itself over time. • Students First Update – Shared Services The Students First Plan supports institutional resources through cost effective ways that improves the quality of services. The plan consolidates administrative functions of the separate accredited institutions allowing for uniform procedures and creating significant and recurring savings and revenue enhancement. Greg DeSantis commented that based on feedback received, the plan language was modified. Administrative functions are planned for the restructuring in three main areas: Human Resources, the Office of Information Technology and Finance and Administration shared services. Outlines of the plan were reviewed by Vice President Kripp, CIO Tolisano and CFO Barnes. Combined administrative functions includes creating a HR Centers of Excellence, a centralized IT office, reduction of facilities staffing to industry standards, centralized management of capital projects and expanding system support for day-to-day financial operations. The colleges’ budgets that are not converting to shared services will remain at the college level. 4-29-2020 Finance & Infrastructure Agenda Packet Page 2 of 7 Action Item • Property Conveyance Between Gateway CC, North Haven Campus and the Area Cooperative Educational Services (ACES) VP Epstein reported on the property conveyance between Gateway CC, North Haven campus and the Area Cooperative Educational Services (ACES). As a cost savings measure the CSCU and ACES is seeking to obtain legislation for a conveyance bill to transfer ownership of GCC’s North Haven campus from the care of the Board of Regents for Higher Education to ACES. The college relocated its academic programs except the Automotive Technology program from the North Haven campus to the new Church Street location in 2012. The change of ownership requires legislation. As part of the conveyance, a long-term leaseback for GCC’s Automotive Technology program will be sought and subject to BOR’s approval prior to finalizing conveyance approval. It was unanimously voted to approve the Property Conveyance Between Gateway CC, North Haven Campus and the Area Cooperative Educational Services (ACES) on the motion of Regent Jimenez, seconded by Regent Gray-Kemp. Adjournment There being no further business, on motion of Regent Cohen, seconded by Regent Jimenez, the meeting adjourned at 11:35 a.m. 4-29-2020 Finance & Infrastructure Agenda Packet Page 3 of 7 ITEM Fiscal Impacts of Corona Virus Pandemic Overview The ongoing pandemic has wide-ranging impacts on the operation of CSCU that will continue and change over the coming months. While there remains massive uncertainty regarding our longer-term outlook, some of the near-term impacts are becoming better understood. In particular, this item provided information on the following: • • • CARES Act student and institutional funding Corona Virus-related expenditures as reported by campus State Budget outlook In addition, several fee reductions related to operations under the pandemic have been made by the universities under the terms of the February 6 Tuition and Fee Resolution. This report provides notice to the committee of those changes, as required under that resolution. CARES Act Funding The federal CARES Act provides funding for higher education as part of the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF). In total, CSCU institutions will receive $54.6 million, of which half must be dedicated to emergency student financial assistance. The formula amounts for each institution are shown in the table below. For the student funding, which has already been made available for drawdown by institutions, the Colleges and Universities have developed similar methodologies for distributing assistance, based on guidance provided by the US Department of Education (USDOE). In each case, the late disclosure last week that the USDOE will require that the student-based funding be limited to FAFSA-eligible students has forced CSCU to adapt our intended payment methodologies, which would have included non-FAFSA filers also. President Ojakian has written to Secretary DeVos to express CSCU’s desire to provide assistance to the nearly 30,000 non-FAFSA filers, and to ask that the USDOE revise its guidance in alignment with the flexibility provided by Congress with respect to these funds. In order to get funding quickly into the hands of as many needy students as possible, both the colleges and universities will fund the FAFSA-filers right away, and will hold back funding to cover the non-filers while we see if our advocacy efforts bear fruit. For the colleges, funding will be made available to each student enrolled in for-credit classes this spring, including those who have withdrawn post-census. Only students who are on CSCU employee or dependent waivers will be excluded, along with high school partnership and second-chance Pell students. Each student will get the same grant of approximately $350, depending on the college. The Universities will make payments to students based on the number of credits enrolled for the spring, with a higher grant paid to students who receive Pell grants. Again, only the grants for FAFSA-filers will be paid now, and the remaining students will be paid in a few weeks if the USDOE changes its guidance. 4-29-2020 Finance & Infrastructure Agenda Packet Page 4 of 7 The remaining “institutional” portion of the CARES Act grants will be used by the universities to partially reimburse the room and board refunds that were paid to students in when the campuses closed. This will cover slightly more than half the cost of those refunds. The use of the colleges’ institutional allotment is not yet determined, as we continue to track eligible expenses and develop the FY21 spending plan. CARES Act Allocations Asnuntuck Capital Gateway Housatonic Manchester Middlesex Naugatuck Northwestern Norwalk Quinebaug Three Rivers Tunxis CC Total $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 1,215,438 2,032,022 4,296,723 3,450,869 3,235,201 1,323,379 3,819,528 602,265 3,189,661 889,048 2,253,229 2,185,505 28,492,868 Minimum Allocation to be Awarded for Spring Emergency Financial 2020 Aid Grants to Headcount Students $ 607,719 1,610 $ 1,016,011 2,874 $ 2,148,362 6,150 $ 1,725,435 4,183 $ 1,617,601 4,973 $ 661,690 2,173 $ 1,909,764 5,389 $ 301,133 1,334 $ 1,594,831 4,751 $ 444,524 1,210 $ 1,126,615 3,342 $ 1,092,753 3,419 $ 14,246,438 41,408 Central Eastern Southern Western CSU Total $ $ $ $ $ 9,009,014 4,433,725 8,390,168 4,256,393 26,089,300 $ $ $ $ $ 4,504,507 2,216,863 4,195,084 2,128,197 13,044,651 9,902 4,267 9,212 5,266 28,647 CSCU Total $ 54,582,168 $ 27,291,089 70,055 College Name Total Allocation FAFSA Eligible 909 1,855 3,502 2,587 2,334 987 2,764 548 2,211 630 1,873 1,899 22,099 NOT FAFSA % Eligible Ineligible 701 1,019 2,648 1,596 2,639 1,186 2,625 786 2,540 580 1,469 1,520 19,309 44% 35% 43% 38% 53% 55% 49% 59% 53% 48% 44% 44% 47% 5,267 3,241 6,773 3,433 18,714 4,635 1,026 2,439 1,833 9,933 47% 24% 26% 35% 35% 40,813 29,242 42% Corona Virus Expenditures Campuses have been closely tracking expenses related to the pandemic. The accounting of expenses through 4/7 is shown below. These expenses have been reported to OPM and it is anticipated that certain categories will be reimbursed out of emergency response funding provided to the State. The significant expenses paid by the Universities to clear out facilities for use as surge hospitals and first responder accommodations is expected to be fully covered by the state at a minimum. We will continue to track these expenses and work to ensure maximum reimbursement. 4-29-2020 Finance & Infrastructure Agenda Packet Page 5 of 7 CSCU Projected Expenses COVID 19 Est. cost of Student Refunds, Expenses and Donated Items (as of 4/7/2020) Colleges: Asnuntuck Capital Gateway Housatonic $ Manchester Middlesex Naugatuck Valley Northwestern Norwalk Quinebaug Three Rivers Tunxis System Office Spring 2020 Semester Student Refunds Expenditures 2,391 $ 62,858 $ 13,672 615,440 20,993 36,968 37,107 41,473 147,452 468 44,683 2,024 7,490 3,961 29,208 29,217 8,978 21,877 22,919 81 25,882 12,867 240,931 385,590 $ 1,043,351 $ Donated Items 1,518 $ 5,728 4,320 1,495 2,703 38,360 6,400 85,668 1,216 5,214 1,770 154,393 $ Total 66,767 634,840 62,281 80,075 147,452 47,854 47,874 39,569 123,863 46,012 31,178 14,637 240,931 1,583,334 Total CCC $ Charter Oak State College $ 57,488 $ 447,858 $ 290 $ 505,636 State Universities CCSU ECSU SCSU WCSU Total CSU $ 2,551,396 374,887 1,372,278 720,092 5,018,652 $ 6,957,692 6,648,974 6,818,543 3,704,562 24,129,771 $ 11,186 2,925 14,111 $ 9,520,274 7,023,861 8,190,821 4,427,579 29,162,534 Grand Total CCC $ 5,461,730 $ 25,620,980 $ 168,794 $ 31,251,504 State Budget Outlook The state legislature has indicated that they will not return to active session before the required adjournment date next week. As a result, it is highly likely that our funding levels next year will reflect the second year of the adopted biennial budget. These funding levels are shown below. As you can see, the only difference between the Governor’s proposed and the pre-existing enacted budget are the inclusion of funding for PACT and for Guided Pathways. In both of these cases we will continue to see if we can identify funding, including during any special session called by the legislature to address outstanding issues. 4-29-2020 Finance & Infrastructure Agenda Packet Page 6 of 7 FY20 Allotment: Actual Received GF State Appropriation CSUs GF Fringe Benefits paid by State CSUs CSU Total GF State Appropriation CCs GF Fringe Benefits paid by State CCs Developmental Services & Transitional Adult Education Outcomes Based Funding Incentive Operating Fund Fringe Benefits paid by State Debt Free Community College 145,330,562 134,481,635 279,812,197 140,733,737 123,820,820 149,218,817 125,314,619 149,218,817 125,314,619 7,327,566 8,912,702 8,912,702 1,196,017 1,202,027 1,202,027 24,400,000 36,550,000 36,550,000 2,450,842 Funding for Net Cost of Guided Pathways CC Total Grand Total FY21 FY21 Governor's Enacted recommendation 153,315,495 153,315,495 147,182,875 147,182,875 300,498,370 300,498,370 2,130,284 $297,478,140 $577,290,337 $325,779,291 $626,277,661 4-29-2020 Finance & Infrastructure Agenda Packet Page 7 of 7 $321,198,165 $621,696,535