The General Academic Institutions Technical and State Colleges Formal Advisory Committee reviewed funding recommendations from the ChargeONE work group that apply a three‑year rolling HEPI inflation adjustment and expand the small‑institution supplement.

Emily Dierdorf, representative of the ChargeONE work group, told the committee the recommendation uses a three‑year rolling average of the Higher Education Price Index. "Right now it is 3.7%," she said, adding that the figure will be updated once the latest year of data is available. Dierdorf said that inflation adjustment would be applied to each rate — instruction and operations, infrastructure, and research — and that those new rates would then be applied to projected enrollments for formula calculations.

The recommendation also modifies the small‑institution supplement. "What you see here in the spreadsheet is expanding the small institution supplement to the maximum funding amount going to all institutions up to 10,000 students and then phasing out to 20,000 students as well as increasing the maximum small institution supplement to $5,000,000 for the biennium," Dierdorf said. Committee members pressed for fiscal context; Dierdorf said the change would add several institutions and estimated the change would raise costs by about $107 million compared with the prior model.

Committee members discussed whether to show backward‑looking fiscal impacts in the written report and how the recommendations should be packaged with forthcoming performance‑funding proposals. Joseph (chair) and staff member Jennifer explained the typical process: the committee can vote on major concepts at its December meeting, designate authors for report language, and circulate a draft by email for final edits.

The committee did not take a formal vote on the funding recommendations at this meeting. Members asked staff to include clear methodology and coordination language in the write‑up so the recommendations align with other pending funding proposals.

Votes at a glance: The only formal motion recorded in the meeting minutes was approval of the committee’s Sept. 25 minutes. Sherry moved to approve the minutes and Noelle seconded; the motion passed by voice vote.