Illustration by Heather Billings / The Collegian

Every Fresno State student pays an Instructionally Related Activities (IRA) fee as part of his or her registration costs.

The 2008-09 fee money went into a $1.2 million pot, for distribution to campus entities by the IRA Advisory Board.

In order to tap the funds, students and faculty from campus departments must fill out an IRA application.

Once completed, the application must then be given to both the department chair and the dean of the college from which the program is sponsored, for review and recommendation.

Michael Jenkins, Ph.D., the dean of the Lyles College of Engineering, makes sure all the applications he receives are error-free and are requesting funds for what is needed, not what is wanted.

“I have to be the first line of defense for things that are wrong,â€Â Jenkins said. In the latest round of applications, the College of Engineering submitted 25 applications to the IRA committee — all prepared by students.

The IRA board reviews all submitted applications, which includes an overall statement of intent from the applicant. Each one of the six board members receives approximately 30 applications for review each meeting.

Afterward, they present their analysis to fellow board members and discuss the application.

Dr. James E. Walton, Ph.D., chair of the English department and a member of the IRA board, said that each application is carefully scrutinized.

The board makes sure that money disbursed will be used for the sole benefit of the students, he said.

Focusing on students, Walton said, is of upmost importance.

“We have to stress this is student money,â€Â Walton said. “It cannot go to faculty.â€Â

It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a particular item will be beneficial to the student body at large.

Jose Diaz, Ph.D., the associate dean for the College of Arts and Humanities, said that members of the IRA board sometimes talk with the college deans if they cannot make a determination if an item would be used over and over again, therefore making it a benefit to the department and not the students.

Many layers of review

Steps are also taken by the IRA board to make sure the money will be spent wisely. Notes are sometimes made to remind recipients that although money has been granted, it is not to be used for some items that might have been requested in the original application, such as food and salaries.

The university̢۪s accounting office ultimately reviews all the paperwork at the end and notes if there are any discrepancies between what money is spent on and what the money was allocated for.

Jenkins, the engineering dean, also puts forth an effort to make sure money is responsibly used.

“It’s [the faculty’s] job to be responsible for student money,â€Â Jenkins said. “We need to make sure it’s not getting misspent.â€Â

After a project is awarded, for example, Jenkins said that the College of Engineering uses purchase requests to see what̢۪s being bought. A faculty adviser must sign the requests. Jenkins, as the dean, is then the last person to see the requests before the money is disbursed.

Funding provides benefits

Before getting IRA money, engineering students had to provide the funds themselves for a trip to Cambodia, where they spend winter breaks teaching classes in civil engineering.

“It’s like Doctors Without Borders, except engineering,â€Â Jenkins explained.

In the project̢۪s second year, IRA money funded the trip to Cambodia. The Society of Women Engineers was then able to attend national and international events, not just regional. Students were able to attend a bridge-build, gaining visibility in the process.

“It has allowed us to fund high level extracurricular activities,â€Â Jenkins said.

In the College of Arts & Humanities, the theatre arts department uses IRA funding for play productions, while music uses funding for performances.

Associate Dean Diaz, who used to teach in the music department, said his college asked for half the funding from IRA to buy a DVD screen for the Dean̢۪s gallery.

The gallery prominently features a rotating display of student art and work, he said.

“The [IRA board] that reviews these requests tries to give everyone within reason as much as they could from the money they have available,â€Â Diaz said.

So what do the colleges do for student projects, to make up for money that̢۪s still needed if IRA funding cannot cover everything?

Diaz said the College of Arts and Humanities uses additional resources from the college, if available, to fill in for what IRA can’t support. “When funding was at its lowest two years ago for the departments, we assisted a little bit to the extent possible that we could,â€Â Diaz said.

In the College of Engineering, according to Jenkins, a recent $10 million donation from the Lyles family is being used to assist programs in the college that IRA money cannot support.

A formal awards process

The IRA board, then, ultimately controls the allocation of funds, keeping a 5 percent emergency contingency reserve each funding period.

John Waayers, the university̢۪s budget officer, is then often one of the last stops for the funding in Academic Affairs.

“There’s a fine line between what a school funds from their general pot — from donations and other funds — versus what the IRA can pay for,â€Â said Waayers, who is also on the IRA Advisory Board.

Once the IRA board decides on allocations, their funding recommendations are forwarded to University President John D. Welty for final approval.
“It’s pretty rare that I disapprove of [the IRA board’s] decisions,â€Â Welty told The Collegian.

Additional reporting by Ben Keller and Tori Pollock.