Security, library expansion, cable win in budget votes

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by Patricia Lin

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Vice President for Finance and Administration Dean Currie said the Board of Governors also passed the proposal for providing cable to the colleges.

"While many other universities are struggling, ours is a balanced budget.

"We have no debt, we keep a conservative financial policy and less than 20 percent comes from tuition, more than half of which goes back out as financial aid," said Currie.

Currie predicted three challenges to keeping the budget balanced will be President Malcolm Gillis' commitment to protecting Fondren Library's purchasing power, the advance capital necessary for the upcoming building projects and the increased capital and operating expenses needed for campus security.

However, Currie also noted that expenses in areas such as utilities and salaries benefits are actually decreasing.

Library Acquisitions

Compared to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), library acquisitions costs have skyrocketed in the past few years, in part because of the increasing prices of books and journals and in part because foreign journals are costing more due to the weak dollar.

"Over half of the books and journals we buy come from foreign countries, and even if the actual costs remained the same, we're paying more now because of the exchange rate," said University Librarian Beth Shapiro.

Gillis cited the change in value of the German mark relative to the American dollar over the past 10 years as an example of the impact of exchange rates on book prices.

"We're paying twice as much for the German mark than we were ten years ago, so for us, German and Dutch journals are going to be expensive to purchase," he said.

Increases in the cost of paper have also contributed to the high inflation rate in books and journals.

"The international paper industry is a cyclical business with wide price swings. Right now we are at the peak of a price swing," Gillis said.

Publishers will also pad the price of their publications to compensate for other losses, including library subscription cancellations, Shapiro said.

"It has been alleged by many in the university community that publishers, many European ones, exercise an oligopoly. I am not saying this is true, but there has been much research into it," Gillis said.

"We have to run real fast to stay in place, but we don't want to just stay in place. We want to get ahead," Gillis said.

The budget allowance for next year's library acquisitions is up 13.8 percent from this year.

Campus Building Projects

Several building projects are scheduled for the next few years, including buildings for the Baker Institute, the new Chemistry Department nanotechnology facilities and the new Computational Engineering Building.

While the funds for these capital growth projects come from gifts and donations to the university, Rice must advance money to meet construction costs while the pledged capital is collected.

Therefore, the new budget must account for these construction costs even though they will eventually be covered by other resources.

Security

Because of noticeable improvements in campus security brought about by this year's installation of more lights and closing of campus entrances at midnight, the university has decided to allocate even more funds to increasing campus security.

"Some of the most important features of our security program are the addition of five new officer positions in the police department, a crime prevention training specialist, another security guard, sophisticated locking systems, more security clerks, more parking clerks and another shuttle bus driver to our workforce," Gillis said.

A $250,000 increase in the security allowance will provide for the five new officers to patrol areas around the colleges and the Graduate House from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. every night.

"We chose 6 p.m. because we want the officers to get to know the students, eat at the colleges, so there will be a better relationship between the police and the students," Currie said.

The Board had discussed a parking fee hike to support the cost of another shuttle bus driver and maintenance of the shuttle buses but never formally proposed such a measure, Currie and Gillis reported.

"There is a hole to fill in the budget cost, but it's still in the discussion stage," Currie said.

Currie said that an additional $700,000 will be allocated toward capital improvements related to security.

These improvements include more lighting and installation of cardreaders for access in various locations around campus.

"We have worked closely with the ad hoc committee on security to put together this package," Currie said.

"We'll be seeing substantial increases in outlays for security because we were pleased with this year's results," Gillis said.

Utilities

One of the areas in which the budgeted allowances have decreased is in university expenditures on utility costs. Ongoing improvements over the past few years have helped the university's operating systems become more efficient and thus less expensive.

"We've had renovations, we've installed variable speed fans in many of the buildings, we've got meters in the buildings now, and we've been able to use college competitiveness to our advantage," Currie said about the university's falling utility bills.

Operations manager Jim Riley cited improvements in the university's cogeneration plant and air conditioning systems as the major sources of savings.

"We've changed some of the equipment in the cogeneration plant to make it more efficient," Riley said.

"Rice has 2 cogeneration units, which are basically gas turbines driving a generator that produces electrical power. About half to two thirds of the power we use we generate ourselves.

"And we use the waste heat from the cogenerators, which is about 1400deg.F, in a heat recovery steam generator, which provides heat for campus heaters, hot water and cold water production," Riley explained.

"I've renegotiated the university's utility contract twice already to get the best prices on natural gas [to power the cogenerators], and we try to optimize on the balance between produced and purchased utilities. If it's more expensive for us to produce power, then we'll buy more, but if it's more expensive for us to purchase power, then we'll generate more of our own," Riley said.

Air conditioning systems in many of the university's buildings have also been updated over the past few years. Riley listed HVAC modifications in Brown College, Jones College, Herman Brown, Fondren Library, Lovett Hall, Lovett College and George R. Brown as the sources of significant reductions in cost.

Riley said, "George R. Brown is a high consumer because they have the fume hoods there that need the `one pass air,' that is, air that is cooled and then blown out after only one circulation through the system. We made some minor adjustments and modifications there to raise efficiency."

"We've also got new chillers for air conditioning. Those are in the central plant. We've started energy conservation programs in some of the buildings. There are input controls at the stadium which can switch things on and off according to a schedule, and the same thing at the gym," Riley said.

"We've had a significant reduction in expenditures of $200,000 per year for the last three years. Our budget for the fiscal year 1996 is $4.2 million whereas our budget for the fiscal year 1992 was $4.9 million. And even then we came in under budget at about $4.7 million," Riley said.

Salaries and Benefits

Because university-oriented work is labor-intensive, much of Rice's expenditures goes toward salaries and benefits.

However, since health insurance costs have remained relatively constant over the past few years and since inflation rates are low, the university has been able to save some money on employee benefits while still granting salary raises.

"We can give real increases in pay because even though the raises are a conservative average, they're still greater than the CPI inflation rate, so there's a real appreciation," Currie said.

Currie invited input from students and faculty concerning budget-related topics.

"We really do want to hear from the university community. Right now I'm working with the college presidents and Vice President [for Student Affairs] Camacho to look into ways to make Food and Housing more efficient. Although I can't work with lots of groups on many different topics, I find that working with the students really is beneficial," Currie said.

"You have to remember we have a serious fiduciary responsibility to all generations. Our budget is 40 percent endowment driven, and we can't deprive future generations for the present.

"Neither can we sacrifice resources available to the present generation on behalf of the future. We need to get the maximum returns and reinvest for inflation. It's called intergenerational equity," Currie said.

This item appeared in the News section of the April 7, 1995 issue.

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