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The USF Financial Brainstorming message board has been created in response to community suggestions that there be an open forum for exchange of ideas regarding ways that the University of San Francisco might respond to current economic situation. We invite all members of the University community, from faculty and staff to students, alumni, parents, and friends to contribute their thoughts and suggestions. Message board comments may be made by named or anonymous individuals. The board is not proactively moderated, so inappropriate use must be reported using the link in the "Contact Us" section below. The University does not endorse any particular suggestion or comment.
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To post a new thread to this board, please send us a message with the proposed thread using the "Post a New Thread" link below.
9 comments:
I think that for both the New Revenues thread and for the Conservation/Reduction thread, it would be useful to have an understanding of current conditions first. I.e., where is money being spent now? More detail would provide more useful suggestions from the community. We would need a baseline to see if suggestions would/could impact a large portion of the budget or not. I know that there is increased transparency at USF with regards to budget, but the details are not easy to find. Can a URL be posted to provide access to all of the USF budget items?
So, for example, I could recommend cutting the energy bill down by turning off lights during ther night (now left on, but could be automated to turn off in absence of people) or allowing thermostat control or automating control in classrooms (so the heat isn't on full blast on days when it's 75 degrees out). However, these changes could impact costs of public safety and/or capital costs for a minor savings in energy costs. More specifics on current costs/operation would allow more accurate, detailed, and meaningful suggestions to be made.
I’d like to suggest a program for employees to voluntarily decline part or all of their pay increases next year. This would have the following advantages over the Voluntary Reduction in Time program:
- There would not be any impact to workload for staff or within departments, unlike the VRT program which would have implications.
- The impact to paychecks would be far less than the 10% - 20% guidelines of the VRT program, which may encourage more people to participate
Another consideration would be to develop a program where a certain percentage was deducted from each paycheck as a charitable donation to USF. Many employees already make contributions, and this may encourage even more. It would also provide a tax-deduction to those that decide to participate.
Open source technology options, such as the Moodle LMS instead of blackboard. Good enough for the entire Cal State system, see
http://www.moodlerooms.com/learningcenter/newsroom/news__node/22/
Cost savings and access to more innovation.
I wonder why so many lights are left on when not needed. In particular, the cafeteria at lone mountain closes for the weekend and all the lights are left on. It looks like Christmas, when it is not for outside visibility (the cafeteria has no outside windows) nor is it a deterrent as there is an entire dining hall between the cafeteria and the corridor.
It seems like a huge waste of energy and money.
Sell the Segways that campus security officers have and buy them bikes instead....at over $5000/each, plus the cost of charging them, they seem like an embarrassing extravagance in this age of recession, and galling to those of us who are being asked to reduce our extra costs.
Our restrooms have hot water; this is unecessary, an added expense, and not environmentally sound; turn off hot water to restorooms and turn off the corresponding hot water heaters; certainly, as noted, also turn off many of the lights that are constantly on; e.g., the library has many lights on all the time
Can someone possibly explain to the University community why the plan for a complete revision of the USF website is apparently going forward when no mission-critical rationale has ever been put forward for doing so?
Not to say that the current site, completely renovated from the previous woefully inadequate site is perfect - not by any means - but unless there is empirical data showing that the current site architecture is harming the functioning or income of the University it is unconscionable that this project would not be delayed as long as we are (apparently) facing the real prospect of staff or faculty time reductions or even lay-offs.
The USF community should have access to what the university spends money on. For one thing with the way budget cuts are affecting the different academic programs (i.e. nursing skills lab needs updated computers and equipment) and students, there should an evaluation of employees with a yearly salary of over $100,000, who have university-owned vehicles to get from/to home and work. Although it is a perk that is worked into their contracts, the university and its leaders should look at selling all university vehicles that had been issued to VPs and other executives and use that money towards the loss of investment or to the students and their families. If we want our students to stay our students, we need to see how we are able to put the money back into the institution for our students. Cutting back on travel and entertainment expenses are great for faculty and staff but again what about those vehicles and salary contracts. Not to mention that the President's Holiday Party could have been enjoyable without the extra expenses of alcohol. I could just imagine what the students and parents would say especially during this tough times of budget cuts, lay offs, and students expected to pay several thousands of dollars without adequate notice and a couple of days before class registration.
Keep all OPE staff and cut 2-3% from the salaries of those making an extravagant amount of money. Why should the university cut one OPE employee only to give another OPE employee more work without the compensation? I am sure that those earning hundreds of thousands of dollars are able to make their lives work with the cut.
Since the university is acknowledging the hardships that many staff and students/student families are experiencing, maybe there should be a review of the prices Bon Appetit charges for food and personal items in their cafe store. Many of the items are twice as expensive (sometimes more) than what is charged at Walgreen's or Safeway. It doesn't seem very supportive (or sensitive) to allow this type of price gouging on campus. Many students feel they have to make their purchases there since they are using their OneCard to pay for the items.
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