The College of Engineering spent $276,292 from the Differential Fee account in FY18. This is significantly less than the FY18 revenue of $373,631, leaving the account with an ending balance of $105,440, or 28.2% of the annual revenue. There were mainly two reason why differential tuition funds were spent conservatively: (1) the College spent excess funds from FY16 during FY17 by as much as $177,323; and (2) some big expenditures were anticipated for summer 2018 (beginning of FY 19).
Differential funds were used primarily in the form of expanded support services, improved lab facilities, support for senior students’ capstone design projects, and instructional supplies. Services made possible by the Differential Fees returned include Engineering Career Services, the Engineering Tutoring Center, supplemental instruction, scholarships, student professional development opportunities, and expanded support of student organization activities.
Personnel, Graduate Assistants, and Student Workers. Differential fees supported the Engineering Career Services (ECS) through funding for the director ($78,300 for the salary plus applicable benefits) and 2 student workers. The fees were used to support 10 to 11 tutors (junior and senior students) each working about 10 hours per week and 2 Graduate Assistants to manage the Engineering Tutoring Center (ETC). The total expenditures spent on student tutors were $51,054. Four graduate Assistants were supported with Differential Fee funds to provide supplemental instruction for our most challenging engineering courses. Differential fees also supported Computer Science (CS) students to work as Lab Monitors for courses where enrollments have skyrocketed.
Financial Aid. The College of Engineering awards scholarships each spring semester for the upcoming academic year. After notification from the Office of the Executive Vice President & Provost (EVP & P) in January 2018 of a balance overage that needed to be awarded for FY 2018, the College of Engineering issued awards for the spring 2018 semester. The ongoing goal is to increase the number and amount of awards to disburse more than 90% of the available funds, and maintain that level of awarding moving forward.
For FY2018, $167,274 in scholarships was available to support junior and seniors within the College of Engineering. The College actually awarded $59,000 scholarships to students before July 1, 2018. The College then made a number of awards in summer 2018, retroactively to Spring 2018. These awards were not shown in this financial report. Rather, they will be reflected in the FY19 report next year. $11,505 in scholarships was available to graduate students at the College of Engineering, and no award was made before the end of FY18 (June 30, 2018). Like some of the undergraduate scholarship awards, the graduate awards were instead made in the summer 2018 and early fall, and they shall be reported in FY19. Delay of making award decisions was partially due to the resignation of the associate dean in charge of the differential fee accounts in the early summer of 2018.
Student Activities, Events, Awards. We invested almost $8K on student organizations and additional $16,909 in support of students attending regional or national professional meetings. For most students, these were their first exposure to what it means to be a professional and learn from the successes and failures of others. Over 20 students were funded through the different fees presenting their technical papers in regional, national, and international conferences. Most of the papers were published in conference proceedings.
Participant support. Each semester, the College of Engineering sees 20-30 different student teams enrolling in the senior design (capstone) course and participating in College wide competition upon completion of their work. In Fall 2017 and Spring 2018, the college gave out $16,909 to senior engineering and computer science students in support of their senior designs. Students used the funds to purchase material and/or cover portion of the manufacturing cost of their prototypes.
Explanation of transfer for the project to remodel the advising center. During the FY 2018, the College of Engineering provided funds to finish FY17 projected cost associated with the remodeling of the Undergraduate Advising Center. In specific, funds from the differential fee account were used to remodel the advising center into a space that better meets the needs of the undergraduate students population within the College of Engineering.
Table 1 below shows the expenditures by typical budget category for FY18
Table 1. FY18 Engineering Differential Fees Expenditure Summary
| CATEGORY | EXPENDITURES |
|---|---|
| Scholarships/Financial Aid | |
| UG Scholarships | $59,000 |
| Graduate Scholarships | $0 |
| Subtotal | $59,000 |
| Student Support and Professional Development | |
| Professional | $78,300 |
| Graduate Salaries | $$49,216 |
| Wages | $51,054 |
| Fringe Benefits | $41,233 |
| Non-Grant Out-ofState Travel | $18,291 |
| General operation | $8,309 |
| Participant Support (senior design) | $16,909 |
| Transfers Out (Remodel. Advising Center) | $12,912 |
| Other expenses | $68 |
| Subtotal | $276,292 |