More HR Suggestions | UI Budget Updates

More Operating Expenses Suggestions

Please note that suggestions are being solicited to involve the campus community in the budget process to the greatest extent possible, and that proposed suggestions for cost-saving measures are being posted in the interest of promoting a free exchange of ideas. To that end, all suggestions received through the Budget Website except those that are malicious or contain information known to be untrue or misleading will be posted. The posting of these ideas, however, does not constitute their endorsement.

As of April 13, 2009 (contd)

Could you tell me what cuts in travel expenses are being made for both the university and the hospital>???
_______________________
My suggestion would be to carefully examine all VP positions and other high-paid administration positions to see which ones can be eliminated. I don't think we can afford the level of expense associated with the administration of the University, particularly if it compromises the hiring of needed faculty or other needed educational support.

If you are truly open to suggestions, and EVERYTHING is "on the table," I think major reduction in administrative costs must be considered.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond.
_______________________
Cut down on the number of University Herd book directories and Yellow Book directories delivered to departments.
_______________________
"Why is it we don't write our own operating systems, but we run our own datacenters?"

I was just reading an article about how Amazon now offers an enterprise data center for a fraction of the cost of an in-house data center. The example given: "if we pay $100/month per GB served to our customers and AWS[Amazon Web Services] offers the same net service for $.20 per GB--it won't matter if we're leveraging a $45mn datacenter investment or not."

It sounds like this might be an area where there could be dramatic IT savings.

The article:
http://www.elctech.com/articles/aws-sucks-the-air-out-of-the-room-cuts-ec2-costs-by-50

Amazon Web Services:
http://aws.amazon.com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

One possibility for saving money is to quit buying Microsoft products. The Linux operation system (Ubuntu, for example) and Open Office work better and are free. I use this combination at home. It does allow file compatability with Microsoft products.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I live on the west side of Iowa City, near the Hawkeye Commuter lot. While out at night, I have noticed on numerous occasions that the parking lot is often nearly empty, yet all of the parking lot lamps are on. This seems to me to be a potential area to minimize some utility costs. After a certain time of day, could you consider reducing the area where commuters park and illuminate only those areas? Or at least turn off some of the lights, maybe alternating lights?
While I do recognized the importance of safety and security issues, the radiant light from that parking lot illuminates our neighborhood fairly well and this seems to be more lighting than necessary.
Just a thought. Thank you for asking for our input.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a comment regarding spreading of herbicide application and other chemicals. I see herbicides being spread in a granular form on grass areas( and sidewalks). That has got to be expensive not to mention a health hazard. Most of the grassy areas that I see aren't in very good condition anyway. I think it is a waste of time and manpower. I also noticed that some of the lawn mowing (and other landscape work) is being done by outside contractors. The mowing is something summer student help can help with, especially work study students. I think we should be paying them instead of paying an outside business. Thanks,
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Could we charge for parking in the large commuter lots (such as Hancher) for athletics events? That is currently free parking. Could we also charge for riding the cambus shuttle to and from those events?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Reduce hallway lighting, where possible. At least within the hospital, there are many non-patient areas that have relatively high levels of hall lighting that remains on 24/7.
2) Produce stick-on labels to go on switchplates to remind users to turn off lights when exiting bathrooms or common areas where lights don't get switched off. Frequent "right there" reminders are more powerful than an occasionl email.
3) PUT A STOP TO FRILL SPENDING
As a hospital employee, I've noticed that new fancy signage (such as colorful "children's hospital" signage, made of complex materials) is popping up -- in non-patient areas that mainly serve intenal needs. This is ridiculous. It seems that people are spending money as if there is no realization as to their public impact or budget impact (spending money because "they can")..
Unfotunately, the College of Medicine and the UIHC have long habits of irresponsible spending, such as the totally unneeded "makevoer" of the Ramp 4 facade or the recent placement of three rather monumental "College of Medicine" markers (out of architectural stone and metals) that really amount t wasted money.
While rank-and-file are told to do things such as empty their own garbage and do without office housekeeping, certain UI elements continue to spend money on relatively frivolous things -- mainly "showy" things -- that send a contradictory message.
4) Review energy use and obvious screw-ups. I noticed that the street lighting surrounding Kinnick
Stadium (which was part of the 100 million renovation) stayed on two weeks ago one hour AFTER sunrise.
THis was NOT an issue of changing over to daylight savings time, but rather (possibly), a "dumb" timer
that does not account for across-year changes in sunrise/sunset. Their are several relatively simple
solutions to this obvious problem (use of photo-cell controls, timers that account for changing sun times,
or a real-live person making monthly changes to light controls).
_______________________
I think a great solution for grounds keeping would be to plant large areas into ornamental grasses and wild flowers. Once established, expenses for mowing are unnecessary for areas planted in grasses and wildflowers.
_______________________
When budgets are ample, the university can engage in support services, but one has to question how necessary they are when we are facing historic budget problems. Specifically, I am referring to the need to maintain the university motor pool (if cars must be rented, use commercial vendors), food service operations outside of the dorms (let commercial vendors run operations inside university sites and have them pay us rent), university bookstore (use commercial vendors). Likely there are other support operations that can be in part of whole be out-sourced to commercial concerns. Add the bus system to that list as well.
_______________________
When I was an undergraduate at Penn State our campus shuttle (“the Loop”) was 25 cents per ride – a quarter, though a small fee, would add up considerably if we charged for the UI Cambus.
_______________________
I was recently on the budget website and noticed a post about charging for Cambus services. I used to utilize the Cambus services regularly when I worked on the west side of the river at the hospital and I agree that I would be willing to pay to ride the Cambus. Even if you just charged a quarter or .50, that’s still a bargain and it would bring in much needed money. Realistically how many campuses as big as ours these days still offer free bus service? Yes it’s nice, but with the economy as bad as it is and the prospects of gas prices going up again, is it still realistic? Probably not. I am sure others would agree with me that it would be worth paying .25 or .50 to ride the Cambus, as it provides a great service to all areas of campus.
I would also like to suggest replacing most, if not all light bulbs on campus with the energy efficient ones that are supposed to last 5 to 7 years. Perhaps too for offices, having a dimmer switch on lights and replacing the thermostats on campus with programmable ones.
_______________________
For General Stores, rather then send out monthly cylinder rental charges on paper (we receive 20-25 a month) have them sent electronically as a PDF file, to who the department selects.
_______________________

they could save a lot of moneyt in fm by having badges instead of spending so much money on shirts and if they are going to mess with airconditioning why cant we wear sleeveless tees in the summer then if buildings were warm would be more comfortable
_______________________
A suggestion for Carpentry? I know that every time we add or lose a staff member, the photo lineup in the hallway has to be re-arranged. The number of holes in the wall and man-hours increases each time a change is made! Getting them all level with the new addition/deletion, can take some time.
We want to present our staff photos in the best light we can, as we are rightfully proud of them. But I'm sure we can't be the only department that has these kind of wall-hangings and "leveling" issues.
If a series of grooved wooden tracks was installed for the upper and lower edges of these frames, they could be rearranged on the wall in a few minutes, no holes, no leveling, something like a display of plates on a dining room wall.
This would save a LOT of man-hours. Hope this helps..
_______________________
Thankyou for your dailogue information sheet you sent out - this is much appreciated.
Difficult times require clarity of purpose and response. The "Academic" needs to stay in the equation of response to preserve the current and future usefulness of the University. Historically, supporting all potential students has not been at the forefront of the academic mission - since the wealthy/privileged were the only ones who could pay tuition, and were often the only group who were educated to standards to allow admission. This thinking is of course now very dated and i am sympathetic to the notion of equality of opportunity as a principle. However, if the choice is academic survival vs equality of education based upon economic status then it might make practical and ethical sense to return to these older practices briefly as part of the survival mode. Just thought that I would make that point for discusion since in difficult times survival is more important (but much less pure) than equal opportunity for all. (this sounds really bad i know, but thought i would bring it up - since a small backward flow in the University core academic mission for a year or two can take many years to restore). Also the University does not always need to grow as part of its success - just needs to provide the excellent core academic experience and outcomes.
I have participated in other significant down turns in other academic centers. These create the need for choices that are difficult, but also focus people on what the institutional core functions really are. And what value the University is meant to add to society vs the value that it is really adding. Of course different answers may come from the many different stake holder groups - but generally what re-emerges is a strong consensus, and a rebirth of the University as a stronger institution. This renewed sense of purpose can also translate to practical public support on a wider scale than might be expected. The reason that academic centers have stood strong since the first european modern day universities were rediscovered (after the greek models of plato etc) in the University of Paris and Oxford etc - have survived wars, pestilence, political attacks etc - and successfully translated to the US is that the core Academic mission is seen by all (including the wider community) to be fundamental to the human condition. This should not change during this current crisis.
In my view as well salary cuts are much better than cutting jobs, and in other discussions we have come down to favor a fixed % across the board as being most fair for these purposes - without exception. I would prefer a cut to be made boldly once or twice rather than lots of little cuts every few weeks. The right answer may be unknown.
The support of disadvantaged persons for education is a relatively recent addition to any university, but is not part of the core mission of a university generally. it can happen when economic times allow it, or if specific money (say from the state, is to pay for this). some would class this support as a form of philanthropy (as a part of doing public good perhaps), although more recently some might argue it is an essential component of what the university does (although this is a very recent view).
If the state of finances of the institution is such that staff cuts/staff pay are the only solution then the question of not funding any aspect of university expenditure must be included in the discussion, rather than sequester off some aspects as being un-touchable.
Indeed the University Strategic plan has as one of 18 bullet points the following: Providing access through an appropriate blend of merit- and need-based financial aid and by increasing the amount of aid available.
With the very difficult economic times that were not forseen when this statement was written it seems reasonable to keep the balance of merit and need based financial aid appropriate to the times - and increasing financial aid could be reasonably argued as not responsible in this economic climate.
The same sorts of discussion are going on in all businesses currently.
_______________________
I. My external grant production is already taxed at 50+% for overhead to keep the language and arts alive on this campus.
If everyone who already pays this tax does not rebell at it, why should the athletic department's income production not also be taxed at a similar rate to keep the undergraduate education alive and well. This should be told to them as a protection for their own self interest. If there were insufficient students attending the university to obtain the depth of sport excellence they require, their enterprise would collapse too.

In the last week we have heard that the German major is being canceled, and will no longer be offered to incoming undergraduates. How many other parts of the hallowed Liberal Arts offerings (at Iowa's Liberal Arts University) must be sacrificed before the cost and financing of the Athletic programs become part of the solution instead of aloof millionaires in such hard times with troves of sheltered income for their own rainy days without any liabilities, except those they have been allowed to choose.
Why should it be allowed that if the programs go to bowl games that all the money allocated to the University be squandered on that same event? Why aren't scholarship programs refurbished when money's like this are "earned"? On a day in and day out basis the athletic enterprise should be taxed for the benefit of the entire University community. Just as a proper argument is made that my overhead is used to sustain a "low income production" but vibrant arts or literature programs, the athletic program should be made to genuflect to the same value systems. Otherwise our difference from Kirkwood will become that we have a football team!

Last summer there was an ugly sex incident that involved the interaction of, and knowledge of, athletic coaches and the well being and safety of a coed on campus.
Numerous people were fired on this side of the river about the manner in which that incident was handled. Not a single athletic personnel was reprimanded for their involvement or tolerance of the incidence. From afar the autonomy afforded the athletic program is not healthy, and they act like they have no or little obligation to the enterprise of the University, precisely because no ONE has demanded that they act otherwise.

If the Provost and President want to act boldly in this delicate time, some considerable thought needs to be taken about our entire enterprise. This is not the time for incrementalism or divide the pain equally, since that presupposes that the status quo ante was equitable before the problem. It was not. The present distress is an opportunity to get more reinvestment in the enterprise, by those who arguably currently live in a parasitic way on it, aloof from its ebb and flow.

II. As the most recent web message signifies, the University is administratively top heavy.
In the next sharing with the community, the University should share the number and aggregate salaries of adminsitrative positions currently paid for from the state treasury above the rank of DEO or Chairman.
This includes the number of Assistant, Associate, Deputy Lieutenant, and Executive Associate Deans, and the number of staff per. This includes an exhaustive list of the number of Plain, Associate, Senior and Executive Vice Presidents of the University on the payroll and their administrative staffs. This would also include the number of personnel involved in servicing External Grants, Payroll and Human Services.
It would also include an inventory of the number of authomobiles and trucks purchased/ and or operated and maintained by the University. It would involve an assessment of the cost effectiveness of "in house"
refurbishing and construction enterprises on state payrolls (My experience is that they are slow, rediculously expensive for the work performed and could easily be replaced by bidding jobs when required, rather than maintaining payrolls whether or not there is work of this kind to do.).

In short there has been very little introspection or sharing about the efficiency of the administration of this University. This dire time is also a good time to revisit and shake up the same issues every employee is being asked to do:
how to do the job more efficiently. If abolishing academic departments is part of this equation, so should every administrative kingdom in the University administration be reviewed.

III. There are a number of "sacred kingdoms" in the University. Their directors hold incredible power since strong direction has not been given to many of them for years.
These kingdoms grow because they are not effectively challenged for the need for their growth, or for the value they represent. They waste money as they get larger and more self perpetuating. Among the many areas with which I am familiar ITS has this kingdom problem. Construction and refurbishing services has this problem. Purchasing has this problem. For many years the only position of continuity in this University (at least the last 20 years) has been that of the present Treasurer and Executive Vice President. In many respects he, more than any other, controls the fiscal path and can and has outflanked previoius provosts and presidents. Is the Treasurer the defacto sustainer of fiefdoms? The President of the University needs to take direct charge of all parts of the enterprise and optimize all for the benefit of all.

_______________________

Save jobs, sell the Pollack please
_______________________

The University News Service, in a report about this update, refers to a letter was sent out Thursday to faculty and staff to update challenges to budgeting for next year. Several of us faculty never received such a letter. Is there a reason why the public news services receive this report and we have not?
_______________________

End and postpone indefinitely capital projects such as this amazing proliferation of new buildings.
If only because the university does NOT have the money to staff the buildings, to pay for the energy to run them, etc etc.
_______________________
This is not exactly a cost saving idea, but an enrollment enhancement idea. I understand that, nationwide, enrollments in four-year colleges are expected to decline, mostly due to demographic factors. At the same time, tuition is an important factor in the UI budget. The UI has many staff who may, at this time, wish to continue their education, either for professional or personal reasons. However, when a staff member enrolls in a UI course, even as a (paying but not graded) audit student, she/he also pays approximately $200 in various fees, mostly for services that are already available to him/her as a staff member. I understand that such fees are important to the functioning of the University, but I wonder if waiving these fees (e.g., for one course per semester for staff members employed at least half-time by the University) might incent course enrollments and maintain tuition revenues. Such an action would not only contribute to a better-educated UI workforce but might also be an important, morale-boosting gesture at a time when all of us are expecting some sort of furlough or other pay reduction next year.
_______________________
We have to stop the upward spiral of money for material goods and salaries.
_______________________
Consider putting definitions about the various pockets of funds – many still do not understand the revenue streams – while it may not be exact indicating that GEF funds include tuition, appropriations, etc. and can only be used for xxxxx might be helpful to explain why we cannot take money from this pot and apply to another pot. The pie charts are very powerful but not knowing what is included in State appropriations, indirect cost recoveries, etc. as well as supplies and services on the expense side might be helpful. Just general categories will be helpful.

As of March 30, 2009

perhaps it’s best to focus on maintenance and upkeep for a change and forget about new buildings, new programs, repetitious “studies”, and resume “padding”. expansion and “big, bigger, biggest” is often counterproductive and has little to do with “good, better, best”. you cannot get by without maintenance personnel but my guess is you could get by with fewer administrators. administrators are self-perpetuating and parasitic. the faculty and staff are the “guts” of the university, without whom along with the students, there would be NO university!
despite computerization and automation, the university administration has grown exponentially in the last 40 years. how do you explain that?
_________________________

An idea that would save UIHC many thousands of dollars is to stop allowing RN’s and other staff to wear hospital scrubs. Staff who currently wear hospital scrubs are in operating rooms, delivery rooms, etc. After learning a study had been done on home laundering (buy your own) compared to hospital laundering being equally good, they proceeded with the new system.

Let’s cut down on the number of copies that are made. I see so many printed pages on our printer that end up in the recycle box.

My manager has not asked our work group for ways to cut costs. She is only looking at cutting personnel.
Ditto to the vehicles used by parking and while we are at it..all service vehicles need to be scrutinized. The excuse of “we got a good deal on 20 of these trucks” doesn’t cut it anymore.
It is coming down to this: do you with the 200,000 dollar jobs want your family member to have great care when they get hospitalized at the U ? OR do you want them to have fair to so-so care ? Right now nursing positions are being cut and we can not be in 2 places at once, nor can we work 24 hours a day. We all want to give the best care possible, when we can’t it feels very bad. Then we ask for more help and are told “no”,we are not allowed due to the budget.

Please listen to all of our suggestions. We have some great ideas that will save a great deal. I hope this plea for suggestions is not just lip service. I have seen a lot of lip service in my tenure.

_________________________

1) Business travel by Faculty should be cut to a minimum.
2) Business travel by Merit Staff should be discontinued.
3) At UIHC depts (OTO & Ophth) need to discontinue sending patient notes to physicians within UIHC. Everything can be viewed electronically.
_________________________

Contract out to Google for email service. The vast majority of students I know already have their uiowa account forwarded to gmail, so why not just let them handle it and either reallocate or eliminate the resources currently directed to an email system, which is frankly more clunky and less user friendly than gmail.

_________________________

I think the practice of sending flowers for deaths, births, and other events in the lives of employees, family members, and important dignitaries should be ended. The cost savings would be significant.
_________________________

I want to thank you for giving rank-and-file employees the opportunity to voice our concerns.
I have been employed for many years in various capacities in departments big and small at the University.
This is the right time to audit departments big and small to eliminate waste, create more accountability AND equitable distribution of work load. In smaller departments, there exist this scenario: employee one is responsible for making sure that the departmental office runs smoothly.
This employee must be accountable to meeting deadlines according to the University’s academic calendar and be expected to keep the departmental office open on a publicly accountable schedule. Employee two of a small department is responsible for solely budget issues. Hence, employee two is free to take flex time, work from home, and set alternative schedules because budget issues can be completed outside of the office. Because the workload is not fairly distributed, there is a high turnover of the front-line staff in smaller departments. Please consolidate smaller departments and make all employees accountable for work and productivity. This might help do away the selfish “your problem is not my problem” mentality that exist in some long-time staff of smaller departments.
In large departments, there are so many legacy staff that inherit a narrow set of job responsibilities simply because they have stayed in the department for many years. This observation is not meant to disparage or disrespect long-time employees, but it is one thing to stay around just to stay around and another thing to stay around AND keep up with vital skills that can serve the University. Large departments can no longer justify the practice of holding onto employees who do not serve the central teaching and research missions of the University. Also, large departments should end the unconscionable practice of giving long-time employee full-time wage for work that be completed on a part-time basis.
Thank you for considering these inconvenient truths and I hope the University will come out leaner and stronger.
_________________________

Per an article in the March 24th edition of the Daily Iowan, those caught in violation of UI’s smoking ban are not yet being ticketed, even though it has been in effect for almost nine months. The article sheds light on those in our community who do not think the ban will make a difference, giving a direct quote from a UI student that “People will do what they want to do”. Perhaps those people would not do so if they were fined, as the law intends. Why are we not fining these individuals? They are in direct violating of the law, and their fines would be a valuable source of income in this budget crunch.
Thank you for taking the time to read and consider this suggestion.
_________________________

As of March 23, 2009

Find a way to “harvest” frequent flyer miles and hotel points to receive free travel and hotel stays for university related travel. Some of our road warrior accumulate quite a bit of points that the UI could turn into saving on travel costs.
A UI wide travel coordination center could save a lot of money
Examples are noted below from AA:
Make business travel more rewarding for your company.

Now you don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company to earn travel rewards like one.
Business ExtrAA is a free program that rewards companies for doing business with American Airlines. The Business ExtrAA program allows your company to earn Points toward awards like:
• Round-trip tickets worldwide in First Class, Business Class and Economy Class
• Next-cabin upgrades
• Admirals Club® memberships and one-day passes
• AAdvantage Gold® status
• For a complete list of awards, visit www.BusinessExtrAA.com*.
Earning and tracking Points
Your company will earn Business ExtrAA Points when you and your employees travel on American Airlines, American Eagle® or AmericanConnection® service. Unlike some programs, the Business ExtrAA program provides full credit for all published fares, and employees still earn their AAdvantage® miles, too. You’ll receive a monthly email to advise you when your account has been updated. You can review your company’s activity online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Redeeming Points
You or your travel manager can choose when to redeem your company’s Points and how to distribute your awards. For example, you may decide to redeem Points for employee incentives or give an award as a thank-you to your loyal customers. Some companies use awards to lower their company travel costs. You can also book your rewards online.

Easy enrollment
Enroll online and you’ll receive an account number instantly so your company can begin to enjoy the benefits of Business ExtrAA membership immediately.
____________________________________________
My suggestion is to thoroughly analyze the University’s need for such an extensive, continually-running CAMBUS system.
CAMBUS is wonderful…necessary for anyone mobility-challenged…provides a safety measure after dark…welcomed by everyone during inclement Iowa weather. But many of us remember a time before CAMBUS was created; we managed to get around campus during all kinds of weather and survived.
To paraphrase a submission made previously by someone else - “The University needs to continuously evolve.” Now that the University’s economic circumstances have changed…fuel costs are high and the budget is low…and we are actively promoting walking for health and wellness…it may be time to assess whether some CAMBUS routes could be minimized or eliminated enough for significant budget savings.
____________________________________________
My suggestion to save the University of Iowa money is by selling the University of Iowa Laundry Service and contracting these services out. Having the laundry done in-house is extremely expensive. There are numerous companies that specialize in the business of doing laundry, especially for the healthcare industry. The University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics is by far the largest user of this service. I do not have the statistics on the total pounds per day but I know it is an astounding amount. The UIHC in the past has attempted to reduce the usage to save money, but that did not work. Anytime the UIHC has tried to reduce usage, it effects the University of Iowa Laundry Service so they up their per pound costs which becomes a losing battle.

An example of a company that would be able to provide these services for the University of Iowa would be Crescent Laundry in Davenport Iowa ( http://www.crescentlaundry.com ). They have national statistics on the average per pound rates posted on their Web site ( http://www.crescentlaundry.com/price.html ) and I am fairly confident we pay a lot more than the $.50 a pound. Another benefit is a company like Crescent Laundry would likely buy our existing University of Iowa Laundry Service Facility ( http://www.uiowa.edu/~laundry/ ) which would generate a lot of revenue. The current University of Iowa employees could very likely work for Crescent Laundry.
I feel this is one example of many in-house services that should be looked at for some enormous savings.
____________________________________________
The UIHC has recently canceled the free parking passes for our patients….this due to the exorbitant costs that are associated with parking.
Why then does the University employ 4 wheel drive pickups for the enforcement personnel? From a fuel usage perspective these types of vehicles are extremely inefficient – the annual fuel usage for a fleet of pickups must be staggering. Maybe its time to employ a fleet of econo-boxes?
____________________________________________
Inter-Departmental Requisitioning by paper should be replaced with functionality within Workflow.
____________________________________________
Surely someone has suggested manually shutting down ALL printers at the end of the day. The one on my desk generates a lot of heat. I turn it off each day before I leave.
____________________________________________
How can we possibly justify the use of 4 wheel drive vehicles/pickups in the UI parking dept? I was over in Grinnell - at their college they are using fuel efficient econo boxes for parking enforcement. Seriously - how much fuel is wasted every day by using these incredibly inefficient vehicles?
____________________________________________
“In the last week we have heard that the German major is being canceled, and will no longer be offered to incoming undergraduates.”
The comment above is factually incorrect. Admissions to the MA and PhD programs in German have been suspended for a period of two years.
There have been no changes to the undergraduate major or minor in German, these programs are still open to all interested undergraduate students.
I understand that the budget website is intended to get ideas into the university community for discussion; however, it would be best if false facts were marked as such or edited out of the discussion.
____________________________________________
I would like to correct a rumor that I read under Operational Expenses. The German major for undergraduates has not been suspended. German will be offered at all levels in the fall and undergraduates can continue to declare a German major. What was suspended was admissions to the German graduate program, for the duration of 24 months, after which the decision to suspend is to be reviewed.
____________________________________________
Since our budget impact is due to a cutbacks in State funding, I recommend you add a link on the budget website to the State of Iowa American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, which answers the question where is the Federal Recovery Money in Iowa?
Iowa is expected to receive approximately $1.9 billion in one-time, direct assistance as part of the new federal stimulus package.
You can see how that money is being used at http://recovery.iowa.gov. The website helps Iowans learn about the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and also track state efforts to make the best use of Iowa’s funds, providing accountability and transparency.
____________________________________________
As a faculty member, I keep trying to think of options that might streamline in ways which would support rather than harm the research and teaching mission.
1. Review committees across campus. Which committees could be streamlined and aided in working more efficiently? Could fewer people serve on the many university, college, and campus committees?
2. In regard to cross-campus graduate programs, why not pare down from five committee members (which has always seemed excessive) to two department faculty and one outside faculty member for comprehensive exam and dissertation committees?
3. Maybe it’s time to consider seriously a Monday-Wednesday and Tuesday-Thursday class schedule in order to close buildings or at least severely cut the use of heat, water, and power one additional day a week. Would staff and faculty be willing to work longer hours M-Th in order to close department offices on Friday?
Thank you for considering our suggestions.
____________________________________________

Where were all these P & S and Faculty during the 1990’s when merit positions were gutted? I think it’s time to get rid of the P & S fluff . I know supervisors who supervise 2 employees. It’s simply ridiculous!
I would like to see HR do some analysis and compare how many merit employees we have compared to 10 years ago. The same for P & S. I think we would be astounded. We are too top heavy.
I think we need to let departments go back to purchasing their own vehicles instead of leasing through Motor Pool. We used to run our departmental vehicles for 10 years or more before replacing them. Now it takes 7 years of leasing to spend the same amount of money. That’s about 3 years of wasted expenditures.
Departments have to pay huge amounts of Design & Construction for construction oversight that’s not given. We have to have a departmental employee oversee the construction workers, even though it’s not his job.
____________________________________________
I agree with so many of the thoughtful proposed budget suggestions by other UI employees.
• I too would like to be able to opt out on more printed flyers and brochures that are not critical to the operation of the University, i. e., financial education classes and Into Print.
• I switch off some hallway lights in Westlawn when I leave the building in the evening. The lights are burning constantly. Turning off lights should be mandated!
• I hung up a paper reminder in the women’s restroom to turn out the lights when leaving! I know that’s small $ but if every restroom on campus burned lights it has to add up to something!
• Cut the dead weight staff; I observed 2 facilities services guys park a large UI pickup, walk into a campus building, and return to the pickup truck with one of the guys carrying a box that was 12”X12”X4”. What a waste of manpower!! Wonder what salary they get for carrying that box? I’m not trying to finger point at only facilities services.
• I wonder about all of those employees protected by union contract, who cannot handle newer technologies as part of their job Hired 25-35 years ago when expertise didn’t include a lot of areas they are expected to work in, they still get their raises. I know a secretary II who claimed that she didn’t know how to work with Excel or other applications, and her supervisor did not expect her to do so. However, I was expected to work with every application, for which I took classes. I am a dues-paying union employee, by the way!
• I am able to work from home via computer for some-not all- of my job responsibilities as departmental secretary—in fact I did that during the floods last summer. I commute from Davenport/Quad Cities so that also saved me money, as I didn’t have to drive up to Iowa City. Why isn’t the proposal to work from home routinely offered to staff, who don’t need to physically be available on campus? Each center/department/college has their own rules, however.
• Why not integrate the IT services as someone suggested and standardize program applications. I know that the IT services for the College of Medicine are not integrated with the College of Public Health ITS. And, I know that I don’t get the newest updated applications from our college ITServices but other colleges do.
• IT Services are VERY IMPORTANT—they help present how the outside perceives us. If we don’t have a GREAT website, then we lose out getting new students, faculty and staff.
• Submission of time sheets could be handled much more efficiently– electronically. We have an employee who is paid through partly through a grant in a center in the UIHC and through funding in our department. He submits his hours through our department electronically, but has to submit paper copy for UIHC, which means an employee has to enter in the information on the electronic system. She also sends an e-mail every other week to remind staff to send the paper copy. Think of the time spent doing the e-mails and submitting the hours!
• Iowa is a Right-To-Work state and we should utilize the protections afforded by this status. Negotiated contractual raises and step increases are negotiated for union members. Legally, we do not have to give nor should we give these raises to non-union members. This would be a tremendous savings from merit, security, technical and P&S salaries.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to present my input!
____________________________________________
One suggestion that has not been considered is to garner feedback from our primary stakeholders about how costs could be saved. The students experience and see aspects of this University that faculty, staff and administrators overlook. Their perspective may yield important ideas!
____________________________________________

Could you tell me what cuts in travel expenses are being made for both the university and the hospital>???
_______________________
My suggestion would be to carefully examine all VP positions and other high-paid administration positions to see which ones can be eliminated. I don’t think we can afford the level of expense associated with the administration of the University, particularly if it compromises the hiring of needed faculty or other needed educational support.

If you are truly open to suggestions, and EVERYTHING is “on the table,” I think major reduction in administrative costs must be considered.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond.
_______________________
Cut down on the number of University Herd book directories and Yellow Book directories delivered to departments.
_______________________
“Why is it we don’t write our own operating systems, but we run our own datacenters?”

I was just reading an article about how Amazon now offers an enterprise data center for a fraction of the cost of an in-house data center. The example given: “if we pay $100/month per GB served to our customers and AWS[Amazon Web Services] offers the same net service for $.20 per GB–it won’t matter if we’re leveraging a $45mn datacenter investment or not.”

It sounds like this might be an area where there could be dramatic IT savings.

The article:
http://www.elctech.com/articles/aws-sucks-the-air-out-of-the-room-cuts-ec2-costs-by-50

Amazon Web Services:
http://aws.amazon.com/

—————————————————————————-

One possibility for saving money is to quit buying Microsoft products. The Linux operation system (Ubuntu, for example) and Open Office work better and are free. I use this combination at home. It does allow file compatability with Microsoft products.
————————————————————————-

I live on the west side of Iowa City, near the Hawkeye Commuter lot. While out at night, I have noticed on numerous occasions that the parking lot is often nearly empty, yet all of the parking lot lamps are on. This seems to me to be a potential area to minimize some utility costs. After a certain time of day, could you consider reducing the area where commuters park and illuminate only those areas? Or at least turn off some of the lights, maybe alternating lights?
While I do recognized the importance of safety and security issues, the radiant light from that parking lot illuminates our neighborhood fairly well and this seems to be more lighting than necessary.
Just a thought. Thank you for asking for our input.
————————————————————————————————————————————–
I have a comment regarding spreading of herbicide application and other chemicals. I see herbicides being spread in a granular form on grass areas( and sidewalks). That has got to be expensive not to mention a health hazard. Most of the grassy areas that I see aren’t in very good condition anyway. I think it is a waste of time and manpower. I also noticed that some of the lawn mowing (and other landscape work) is being done by outside contractors. The mowing is something summer student help can help with, especially work study students. I think we should be paying them instead of paying an outside business. Thanks,
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Could we charge for parking in the large commuter lots (such as Hancher) for athletics events? That is currently free parking. Could we also charge for riding the cambus shuttle to and from those events?
——————————————————————————————————————————–
1) Reduce hallway lighting, where possible. At least within the hospital, there are many non-patient areas that have relatively high levels of hall lighting that remains on 24/7.
2) Produce stick-on labels to go on switchplates to remind users to turn off lights when exiting bathrooms or common areas where lights don’t get switched off. Frequent “right there” reminders are more powerful than an occasionl email.
3) PUT A STOP TO FRILL SPENDING
As a hospital employee, I’ve noticed that new fancy signage (such as colorful “children’s hospital” signage, made of complex materials) is popping up — in non-patient areas that mainly serve intenal needs. This is ridiculous. It seems that people are spending money as if there is no realization as to their public impact or budget impact (spending money because “they can”)..
Unfotunately, the College of Medicine and the UIHC have long habits of irresponsible spending, such as the totally unneeded “makevoer” of the Ramp 4 facade or the recent placement of three rather monumental “College of Medicine” markers (out of architectural stone and metals) that really amount t wasted money.
While rank-and-file are told to do things such as empty their own garbage and do without office housekeeping, certain UI elements continue to spend money on relatively frivolous things — mainly “showy” things — that send a contradictory message.
4) Review energy use and obvious screw-ups. I noticed that the street lighting surrounding Kinnick
Stadium (which was part of the 100 million renovation) stayed on two weeks ago one hour AFTER sunrise.
THis was NOT an issue of changing over to daylight savings time, but rather (possibly), a “dumb” timer
that does not account for across-year changes in sunrise/sunset. Their are several relatively simple
solutions to this obvious problem (use of photo-cell controls, timers that account for changing sun times,
or a real-live person making monthly changes to light controls).
_______________________
I think a great solution for grounds keeping would be to plant large areas into ornamental grasses and wild flowers. Once established, expenses for mowing are unnecessary for areas planted in grasses and wildflowers.
_______________________
When budgets are ample, the university can engage in support services, but one has to question how necessary they are when we are facing historic budget problems. Specifically, I am referring to the need to maintain the university motor pool (if cars must be rented, use commercial vendors), food service operations outside of the dorms (let commercial vendors run operations inside university sites and have them pay us rent), university bookstore (use commercial vendors). Likely there are other support operations that can be in part of whole be out-sourced to commercial concerns. Add the bus system to that list as well.
_______________________
When I was an undergraduate at Penn State our campus shuttle (“the Loop”) was 25 cents per ride – a quarter, though a small fee, would add up considerably if we charged for the UI Cambus.
_______________________
I was recently on the budget website and noticed a post about charging for Cambus services. I used to utilize the Cambus services regularly when I worked on the west side of the river at the hospital and I agree that I would be willing to pay to ride the Cambus. Even if you just charged a quarter or .50, that’s still a bargain and it would bring in much needed money. Realistically how many campuses as big as ours these days still offer free bus service? Yes it’s nice, but with the economy as bad as it is and the prospects of gas prices going up again, is it still realistic? Probably not. I am sure others would agree with me that it would be worth paying .25 or .50 to ride the Cambus, as it provides a great service to all areas of campus.
I would also like to suggest replacing most, if not all light bulbs on campus with the energy efficient ones that are supposed to last 5 to 7 years. Perhaps too for offices, having a dimmer switch on lights and replacing the thermostats on campus with programmable ones.
_______________________
For General Stores, rather then send out monthly cylinder rental charges on paper (we receive 20-25 a month) have them sent electronically as a PDF file, to who the department selects.
_______________________

they could save a lot of moneyt in fm by having badges instead of spending so much money on shirts and if they are going to mess with airconditioning why cant we wear sleeveless tees in the summer then if buildings were warm would be more comfortable
_______________________
A suggestion for Carpentry? I know that every time we add or lose a staff member, the photo lineup in the hallway has to be re-arranged. The number of holes in the wall and man-hours increases each time a change is made! Getting them all level with the new addition/deletion, can take some time.
We want to present our staff photos in the best light we can, as we are rightfully proud of them. But I’m sure we can’t be the only department that has these kind of wall-hangings and “leveling” issues.
If a series of grooved wooden tracks was installed for the upper and lower edges of these frames, they could be rearranged on the wall in a few minutes, no holes, no leveling, something like a display of plates on a dining room wall.
This would save a LOT of man-hours. Hope this helps..
_______________________
Thankyou for your dailogue information sheet you sent out - this is much appreciated.
Difficult times require clarity of purpose and response. The “Academic” needs to stay in the equation of response to preserve the current and future usefulness of the University. Historically, supporting all potential students has not been at the forefront of the academic mission - since the wealthy/privileged were the only ones who could pay tuition, and were often the only group who were educated to standards to allow admission. This thinking is of course now very dated and i am sympathetic to the notion of equality of opportunity as a principle. However, if the choice is academic survival vs equality of education based upon economic status then it might make practical and ethical sense to return to these older practices briefly as part of the survival mode. Just thought that I would make that point for discusion since in difficult times survival is more important (but much less pure) than equal opportunity for all. (this sounds really bad i know, but thought i would bring it up - since a small backward flow in the University core academic mission for a year or two can take many years to restore). Also the University does not always need to grow as part of its success - just needs to provide the excellent core academic experience and outcomes.
I have participated in other significant down turns in other academic centers. These create the need for choices that are difficult, but also focus people on what the institutional core functions really are. And what value the University is meant to add to society vs the value that it is really adding. Of course different answers may come from the many different stake holder groups - but generally what re-emerges is a strong consensus, and a rebirth of the University as a stronger institution. This renewed sense of purpose can also translate to practical public support on a wider scale than might be expected. The reason that academic centers have stood strong since the first european modern day universities were rediscovered (after the greek models of plato etc) in the University of Paris and Oxford etc - have survived wars, pestilence, political attacks etc - and successfully translated to the US is that the core Academic mission is seen by all (including the wider community) to be fundamental to the human condition. This should not change during this current crisis.
In my view as well salary cuts are much better than cutting jobs, and in other discussions we have come down to favor a fixed % across the board as being most fair for these purposes - without exception. I would prefer a cut to be made boldly once or twice rather than lots of little cuts every few weeks. The right answer may be unknown.
The support of disadvantaged persons for education is a relatively recent addition to any university, but is not part of the core mission of a university generally. it can happen when economic times allow it, or if specific money (say from the state, is to pay for this). some would class this support as a form of philanthropy (as a part of doing public good perhaps), although more recently some might argue it is an essential component of what the university does (although this is a very recent view).
If the state of finances of the institution is such that staff cuts/staff pay are the only solution then the question of not funding any aspect of university expenditure must be included in the discussion, rather than sequester off some aspects as being un-touchable.
Indeed the University Strategic plan has as one of 18 bullet points the following: Providing access through an appropriate blend of merit- and need-based financial aid and by increasing the amount of aid available.
With the very difficult economic times that were not forseen when this statement was written it seems reasonable to keep the balance of merit and need based financial aid appropriate to the times - and increasing financial aid could be reasonably argued as not responsible in this economic climate.
The same sorts of discussion are going on in all businesses currently.
_______________________
I. My external grant production is already taxed at 50+% for overhead to keep the language and arts alive on this campus.
If everyone who already pays this tax does not rebell at it, why should the athletic department’s income production not also be taxed at a similar rate to keep the undergraduate education alive and well. This should be told to them as a protection for their own self interest. If there were insufficient students attending the university to obtain the depth of sport excellence they require, their enterprise would collapse too.

In the last week we have heard that the German major is being canceled, and will no longer be offered to incoming undergraduates. How many other parts of the hallowed Liberal Arts offerings (at Iowa’s Liberal Arts University) must be sacrificed before the cost and financing of the Athletic programs become part of the solution instead of aloof millionaires in such hard times with troves of sheltered income for their own rainy days without any liabilities, except those they have been allowed to choose.
Why should it be allowed that if the programs go to bowl games that all the money allocated to the University be squandered on that same event? Why aren’t scholarship programs refurbished when money’s like this are “earned”? On a day in and day out basis the athletic enterprise should be taxed for the benefit of the entire University community. Just as a proper argument is made that my overhead is used to sustain a “low income production” but vibrant arts or literature programs, the athletic program should be made to genuflect to the same value systems. Otherwise our difference from Kirkwood will become that we have a football team!

II. As the most recent web message signifies, the University is administratively top heavy.
In the next sharing with the community, the University should share the number and aggregate salaries of adminsitrative positions currently paid for from the state treasury above the rank of DEO or Chairman.
This includes the number of Assistant, Associate, Deputy Lieutenant, and Executive Associate Deans, and the number of staff per. This includes an exhaustive list of the number of Plain, Associate, Senior and Executive Vice Presidents of the University on the payroll and their administrative staffs. This would also include the number of personnel involved in servicing External Grants, Payroll and Human Services.
It would also include an inventory of the number of authomobiles and trucks purchased/ and or operated and maintained by the University. It would involve an assessment of the cost effectiveness of “in house”
refurbishing and construction enterprises on state payrolls (My experience is that they are slow, rediculously expensive for the work performed and could easily be replaced by bidding jobs when required, rather than maintaining payrolls whether or not there is work of this kind to do.).

III. There are a number of “sacred kingdoms” in the University. Their directors hold incredible power since strong direction has not been given to many of them for years.
These kingdoms grow because they are not effectively challenged for the need for their growth, or for the value they represent. They waste money as they get larger and more self perpetuating. Among the many areas with which I am familiar ITS has this kingdom problem. Construction and refurbishing services has this problem. Purchasing has this problem. For many years the only position of continuity in this University (at least the last 20 years) has been that of the present Treasurer and Executive Vice President. In many respects he, more than any other, controls the fiscal path and can and has outflanked previoius provosts and presidents. Is the Treasurer the defacto sustainer of fiefdoms? The President of the University needs to take direct charge of all parts of the enterprise and optimize all for the benefit of all.

_______________________

Save jobs, sell the Pollack please
_______________________

_______________________

A great way to save money is to consolidate video and multimedia services at the University of Iowa. It seems illogical that the Center for Multimedia Production (formerly called the Video Center) is controlled and operated by the Division of Continuing Education. In my opinion the Center for Multimedia Production could easily be absorbed by ITS/ video production services. Significant cost savings could be realized by terminating managerial staff at the Center for Multimedia Production and reassigning technical personnel to new positions within ITS/ video services. This merger would enable the University to reduce capital expenditures for very expensive high definition television equipment, office utilities, vehicles, and other miscellaneous items. In addition, office space in Seashore Hall could be reallocated to the Psychology Dept.
____________________________

How about fixing those leaky faucets?
____________________________

1) Eliminate cost of dinners for employees that travel down to $25 per DAY
2) Do not pay or include alcohol at events, dinners, guest, even though the expense are paid for by gift money donated to the foundation
3) Put a limit of mileage, vehicle rental for each travel
4) Put a limit on cost of flights, hotels, entertainment
5) Put a freeze on cost of living salaries of 79,000 and higher
6) Include the cost of living for salaries making less than 79,000 and for those less fortunate
7) Do not spend money on research that is done over and over – if the interns, researchers need to learn, they can without the extra funding and look for other options to research.
____________________________

My recommendation is to eliminate and/or reduce all printing and mailing of flyers and brochures that are not critical to the operation of the University. For example, every month I receive a flyer on upcoming financial education classes which I promptly throw in the recycle bin. If there was a way that I could opt out of receiving these types of mailings I would do so immediately. I understand the need to communicate to a diverse population of employees which includes individuals who may not have access to a computer on a regular basis, however for those of us who are not in that group perhaps the paper mailings could be eliminated or at least have the ability to select e-mail notification as the delivery method (like U-bills).
____________________________

No food served during meetings. If it’s over lunch have the meeting be a Brown Bag.
Cut back on lunch/dinner reimbursements.
Offer class lectures online versus in a large classroom.
Plant more perennials and less annuals on-campus.
Do away with chemicals on the grass.
Mow the grass less often.
____________________________

1) go to a 4-10 hour work week where feasible (save on energy)

2) sell all rental properties

3) close motor pool

4) university can no longer use consultants

5) decrease the excessive layers of administration (no associate provosts, associate deans)

6) consolidate the IT system, eliminate collegiate level IT departments

7) close under performing departments (ex: Center for Teaching)

moratorium on the purchase of any property

9) if Merit, P&S and Faculty all sacrifice administration must sacrifice as well by taking pay cuts and a wage freeze until the crisis is over (this should include all administrators including the president, deans, athletic director and coaches)

10) reconsider the sale of the Pollack. I know it is a valuable asset to the university, but in a crisis like this, is it more valuable than the people who work for the university?

11) employees and citizens of Iowa deserve transparency during this time. The University of Iowa should post on this website all expenditures and investments.

____________________________

I’ve attended and worked at other colleges and universities where, during the summer months, the free campus shuttles are no longer free. That is, during the school year (August – May) anyone can ride the buses for free. During the summer, the buses charge a normal bus fare. If you are a student, you can qualify to receive a reduced-rate buss pass. I’m not sure if this is something we could apply on our campus, as we are pretty condensed and not as widely spread as other campuses.
____________________________

It seems that every department ends up having consumable supplies they no longer need. What about an easy Web-based listing so other departments could use these instead of buying more? It could be an informal arrangement between departments to transfer the materials; no additional space or labor to house and redistribute. Certainly not a big-ticket savings but it wouldn’t cost much to implement either, and it would promote a shared climate of savings.
____________________________

Charge for bid plan sets for non-UI…Say $25 for smaller projects and $50 for larger. This helps in 2 ways: 1) Defrays the cost of the plan sets to UI and 2) discourages those who are not serious about bidding from requesting a plan set. Contractors are hungry for work and the number of plan sets requested has been steadily increasing.

I’d also suggest passing the shipping fees on to those who request plans and are not in the radius of free delivery.

Rapids Repro would be in charge of collecting these fees and crediting UI on invoices.

Decreasing the paper used to print plans would also be a positive move toward increased sustainability.
To go further, issue each non-UI entity a CD of the plans and specs. They can then go out and print as many sets as they like with no printing costs to UI, only the cost of a CD and Rapids time to prepare. I’m not sure if we’re ready for that, but could start trying it on select projects to see how it goes.

Potential cost savings: $200,000-$500,000+ (Not sure)
____________________________

This morning, there is another flood of “Information on March Financial Education Classes” in our mail – one for each person in the office. They are sent by UI Benefits and UI Learning and Development.
Please stop sending these paper notices. They require time to sort, time to distribute, and waste paper, whether it’s recycled or not. In addition, few people read them.
It’s time to change this distribution to a mass e-mail, or one attachment to a departmental (HR Unit Rep) e-mail for posting in the office.
____________________________

One thing I have never understood is, why does the University run the cambus routes during the break periods throughout the year? During these times, the buses seem to drive around all day and it is rare that you see anyone riding them. I have been told the buses average less than 5 miles per gallon of fuel and of course there is other maintenance involved and payment for the drivers, but rarely do you see anyone on the buses. I would propose that during all break periods, cambus routes be eliminated, or, at least cut back markedly, with the possible exception of the handicap bus. It might be necessary to run a few routes to distant parking areas such as Finkbine for hospital employees, etc., but these routes could be cut back to something like 7:30-9:00 a.m. and 4:30-6:00 p.m. during break periods. It might even be worth looking into how many routes really need to be run during the summer session. I suspect we could get along with fewer routes during the regular summer session as well.
____________________________

1. Walking on campus, especially in the early evening, I notice many buildings, classrooms, offices, and labs all lit up with no one in them, clearly a waste of electricity. I know it happens sometimes, someone forgets to turn the lights off. Look into ways to reduce this, it saves money, install more automatic light switches (I realize this adds an upfront cost), simply market this idea to all faculty and staff (global email is really cheap), make everyone aware, remind them often, I think people would make more of an effort to help turn things off, expand it for not just lights, but computers, lab instruments, etc. Might have significant savings if everyone puts in even a little bit of effort. Another idea to try or experiment with is hiring some people to simply be the “light police”, make it their job to go around and turn off lights, or find wasteful electricity use, identify the problems and work on ways to resolve the wasteful use.

2. Campus parking: I see many University parking lots that are rarely at or near capacity. Perhaps there are more opportunities to sell a few more permits for some of these lots as a way for the University to generate some more income? I believe there are many staff and faculty that have permits that they don’t regularly use, but don’t want to give them up in case they need to drive in. A simple survey of parking lot users may provide insight into how much opportunity there is to expand the number of permits. I would expect a significant amount of income could be generated by this.

3. Additional Parking Idea: Maybe offer a special “Student night Parking” permit that allows access to some of these lots mentioned in #2 at night and the weekends? Define the “use” windows. I think the parking on campus is an under-utilized resource the University has.
____________________________

Could we assemble folks who plan a trip to Des Moines and send a “shuttle” instead of each of us driving over on our own? We must send dozens of people each week! It’s a green approach as well as a potential cost saver.
____________________________

Meetings without food provided by the departments could save thousands.
____________________________

I work in Seashore Hall. The single pane windows leak very bad!! Lots of energy right out the windows. For years it has been this way. We have to crank up the heat in the winter extra, just to keep from freezing. Hopefully something can be done this spring for next winter.
____________________________

I think a general travel ban will send a message to the public that UI is tightening its belt. I think it would also save a good amount of money.
____________________________

While it will not be very popular (I have brought this up before) I believe there are gains to be made in the University Travel Program. Individuals who fly at our expense are allowed to keep frequent flyer miles (FFM). By making flight arrangements through the UI I expect we could retain the FFM and use them to send future travelers at no additional cost. Thank you.
____________________________

If you don’t want to sell the mural, why not rent it out – this is a suggestion made by our student, Becci Hoskins. I’m sure many museums in New York, or California would want this on display. It would beat us as an institution having to pay for the insurance to “house/store” it.
Also why not send the inter-departmental req’s via email rather than faxing them. We prepare them via the computer, it would just take a few more clicks, rather than printing them out, and sending them via fax (using more toner and paper)
____________________________

One way that I think the University can cut down is on printing. In the College of Business, almost every class prints out a name tent for each student. Personally I have 8 of these tents with my name on it from spring, summer, and fall classes. I see this as a large waste. While I believe that it is helpful to know the names of each student in class by using these tents, it would save a lot to either have students make their own tent or only print them for students that do not already have one. Some teachers have started to accept assignments electronically, which I also think is great. It cuts out the need for printing in the already congested computer labs, allows professors to screen for plagiarism, and eliminates the excuse of “my printer wouldn’t work.” I hope that these ideas are helpful and get put into action.
____________________________

I think that with so many people using e-mail these days and with postage rates increasing the University of Iowa should try to do as much correspondence via e-mail. Mailings to faculty, staff, students or alums done via e-mail would save the University a lot of money on postage, as well as the money it costs for the mailings to be prepared and the cost of the supplies for the mailings.

I receive magazines and newspapers from the Foundation and the Alumni Association in the mail, as well as newspapers from the University. They are very nice, but it must cost a lot to publish them, as well as postage to mail them. I know it is important to keep in touch with people for fundraising purposes, but a lot of people receiving these in the mail might not even be reading them and probably definitely not keeping them. For those with e-mail addresses on file with the University, sending these via e-mail would save a lot of money and the recipients would have the advantage of being able to access the magazines from anywhere whether they are on vacation or have gone away for the winter. For those without e-mail addresses it might be necessary to continue to send items in the mail, but encouraging e-mail communications would be beneficial for everyone.

Travel to conferences is important to continue for faculty and students, but many departments and colleges often times send numerous people to the same conference to represent the University. With the budget cuts I think this is something that needs to be looked at. If one person can attend the conference and bring back the information to others, it would save a lot of money.
____________________________

I think lots of money could be saved by simply not serving food at all the meetings and receptions. In this horrible time of trouble, I think people would just as soon not eat at a meeting or reception and maybe save someone’s job. I can’t even imagine the budget for food on campus and at the hospital for functions. People can afford to feed themselves before or after. I surely never expect to be fed at a meeting. Just because someone is in administration, a doctor, or any other department, they shouldn’t expect food to be served. Almost every email we receive for a function includes “refreshments being served’. To me, that is a simple solution for saving a huge amount of money. One other thing would be, instead of handing out buttons to tell people to shhhh, why can’t someone just say, “could you please be quiet for the sake of the patients”? Shouldn’t staff be aware of that without being told, that when patients are trying to rest, you automatically be quiet? I have no idea how much money is spent on this, but I surely think it could be spent elsewhere. I’m just a clerk, not college degree, but it surely makes sense to me. Thanks for your time in reading this.
____________________________

Here are some ideas which might contribute in small ways to saving money at UI. All of these amount to using electronic formats in place of paper formats for UI documents.

1. Every few weeks I get print outs of “Transaction Detail Statements”
on grant expenditures and payments for the grants on which I am a PI.
These can be viewed on line at the GLDSS web page as the SA3 documents.
If PIs were just sent emails with attachments of the SA3 documents in electronic form, they would see all the info in the paper documents but save the paper costs. The same goes for other administrative staff people who now get those documents in paper form. The email might say something about letting the PIs know that they can now view their current grant expenditures in the attachment.

Even just sending the url address for where the PIs could find those SA3 documents, along with the code #s needed ( SDEPT INST ORG..) would be sufficient for the PIs to see the documents on line.

2. Various colleges around the university such as CLAS and COE have really nice and finely crafted magazines or newsletters which highlight accomplishments of their faculty, and additional interesting news about students, college initiatives, etc. I think it is very important and useful to celebrate the UI community’s accomplishments and very much enjoy reading these documents. I now receive paper copies of these magazines, and I assume all other faculty do, too.

I am wondering if it might be worthwhile to consider sending to faculty only electronic versions of these documents, or even an email letting faculty know that the newest version is at a given url. Perhaps the email might have a short bulleted list of the stories that appear in the documents. Again the idea would be to save on the paper costs by scaling back the numbers of these documents which need to be produced. Perhaps hard copies would still be sent to some (e.g. alumni) but for UI personnel, just receiving electronic versions would be a way of perhaps pitching in to cut costs in very tight budgetary times.

____________________________

As the use of computers have grown, I have noticed that many organizations today have reduced the size of their classified job ads in newspapers and magazines. Most now give a one or two sentence description of the job; a one sentence “branding” type of statement, and then direct readers to their website for more information/application. However, the University of Iowa continues to run very lengthy classified job ads that give every detail about a job. I know these ads are expensive and yes sometimes more advertising is needed for some types of positions. I would suggest that someone take a look at the advertising strategy, costs and results to see if a cut could be made to your classified ad budget.

Per diems are far more than the average middle class person needs to spend on meal allowances. We eat far better on work trips than at home, in my experience.

I think travelers on UI business can eat at less expensive places during work trips as a way to cut back. I also think receipts should be given for all meals and eliminate the ability to just claim the full per diem as I am told some do.

The entire state of Iowa can save money on this idea.
____________________________

Is it possible to put more pressure on DEOs to discontinue unnecessary spending? There are still several departments that seem to be feeling immune to the budget cuts and are looking at cutting employees before they cut all other “fat” out of their budget.

Some other small suggestions, that might add up quickly could include: discontinuing giving away small gift items (t-shirts, balls, etc) at sporting events, cutting back on extravagant dinners and parties for administrators (maybe serve hors devours instead of a full meal when a special guest comes to town, etc), and partnering with more classes and educational institutions to provide some services. For example, instead of having a chef at the President’s home what about partnering with Kirkwood culinary students?

Or, could you allow one of the engineering classes to have hands on experience by partnering with a department that is trying to do some remodeling?

Good luck! We have a lot of faith in your decision making skills so please don’t let us down.
____________________________

We should make all internal communications electronic. This would save the University of Iowa money and would be an environmentally conscious move.
____________________________

Possibly suspending unnecessary travel University wide. Do away with the gifts that are given to employees for years of service.
____________________________

How about cutting the special compensation pay out for people who already make a huge salary. Also Might it be time to not reimburse ALCOHOL at dinner party functions.
____________________________

I have thought for a long time that University employees that travel (fly) on University business and get frequently flyers miles for that trip should use those for future University business trips instead of for personal use.
____________________________

One thought to help the budget is to cut out all the “receptions” that go on when someone new is hired or an “achievement” is noticed. I understand it is important to recognize work well done or new employees, but think of the money it could save. Right now it sounds like any little thing could add up to be helpful.
____________________________

A cost saving idea I thought of while attending recitals this spring would be to put a digital screen of the performers works instead of printing endless recital sheets.
____________________________

My suggestion is to pay less rent. The University is paying rent for Jefferson building, Plaza One, US Bank, Brewing Square, and Old Capital mall and I am sure many more. I understand that some of these are rented for people that were displaced by the flood. But, it seems to me that space could be better used that we already own. Or, now might be a good time to considering buying while the market is down.
Also, consider “encouraging” people to retire. I know several people over 65 still working for the University, and they say they can’t retire because of the cost health insurance (not the stock market falling).
____________________________

I’ve noticed that I receive a paper mailing every month from HR for flexible spending account balances. Would it save $ or time to simply be able to access such balances through employee self service instead of sending statements through campus mail?
____________________________

I have noticed that the landscape of the UI campus is always well-maintained and beautiful. This must cost a lot of money to keep it looking this way. Perhaps you could save money by cutting the grass a little less often. For example, the grass is mowed about once every seven days (I don’t know how often it is mowed, exactly), but money could be saved by mowing it every 10-12 days, and I doubt many people would even notice.
____________________________

One idea would be to e-mail rather than print and distribute some of the “bulk” mail items where it seems appropriate. Another would be to discontinue printing names on some of the information pieces. It would save time for us in not having to distribute individual mail to a department of 400 people as well as save the cost of printing the names.
____________________________

I suggest there stop being so many receptions. Everyone knows this is a tight budget period and it would go a long ways if receptions slowed. Introduce new staff at meetings instead of having a special reception. Have a temporary moratorium on retirement receptions (or scale them back). Or combine them!

I’ve heard a lot of negative feedback about the UI purchasing the Athletic Club. I think it would go a long way in the community if the decision was made to hold off on purchasing it. I have no idea why the decision was made to purchase it, especially now that the IMU is back up and running, but it looks like a frivolous purchase to the community – at least that’s what I’m hearing.

I care a lot for what the public thinks of the University. It’s taken some big hits this year. I would be proactive STARTING AT THE TOP in making decisions on where to cut. There are some heavy hitters who could take a pay cut. If everyone was asked to cut 1% of salary, how much of a difference would that make? I do mean everyone. Stop bonuses until the budget crisis stops. When people hear their manager got a bonus, but they may not be getting a raise, that fosters nothing but anger.
____________________________

some more ways to save money is don’t have so many chemicals why do we need 3 or 4 different floor cleaners and vinegar is cheaper and would take place of glass cleaner we use shine up and multi which serve the same purpose we use our main cleaner and disinfectant in stools so why bowl cleaner why 3 or 4 different kinds of dusters etc if someone checked this out bet the would save enough wouldn’t have to give so many furloughs also why so many different size and kinds of liners.
____________________________

Fine smokers in non-smoking areas for additional revenue, if they work at the UI/ UIHC, take it out of their paycheck. I know when I was a student here and got parking tickets they definitely tracked me down!
Financial Services sends out mailings monthly or more-everyone throws them away-send them via email instead.

At the hospital we have mailings that are big and glossy and fancy-email us them.

Don’t offer to buy people calendars-they can use their outlook one.

Streamline/decrease the offerings in the office supplies catalog-there is no need for someone to have a $3.00 pen. If they want one they can bring their own, a Bic work just fine.

No more business meals with only UI people on trips.

No sticky notes-use old scratch paper.

Have recycle bins next to ‘shred’ containers. I think people think that sending paper to ‘shred all’ is the same thing-but getting shredded costs us money. Might as well put that $ towards recycling bins instead of shredding.

Send out an email reminding people to turn off lights etc when not in use

Urge printing documents/emails on both sides of paper or not printing out at all
____________________________

1) More job sharing, two people in one position
2) Freeze tuition cost for students and eliminate “little processing fees” since a lot of positions are not being filled
3) Set up a discount plan for students attending U of I whose parents are employees of the University.

Finkbine golf course is in a break-even situation at best. Owning a university golf course does not contribute to the core missions of the University. There are hundreds of acres of prime Iowa City real estate just begging for some way to be used as a revenue stream. Heck, sic a team of MBAs on this and ask them how to make money from this resource (without selling it).
____________________________

I believe it is absolutely crucial, when considering what is and what is not an “academic” enterprise, to appreciate that there is a great deal of core academic research and teaching that does NOT occur in classrooms but in other venues. For instance:
• Medical students and nurses learn at patients’ bedsides;
• Art students and faculty learn and teach in the art museums – their “laboratories;”
• Performance music students learn and, as part of their degree requirements, perform in concert halls (or during the current displacement, the equivalent) – again, the nearest analogy is “laboratories;”
• Archeology students (and faculty) learn at archeological “digs” at off-campus sites;
• Theater, dance, and music students learn at the big, Hancher-sponsored, events that bring in outside experts (i.e. performers), who not only provide master-classes partly subsidized by Hancher ticket-purchasers, but provide students with the measure of quality they must attain to have successful careers.

In the Fine and Performing Arts, what is an academic necessity for students is “entertainment” for the rest of us, but the latter must not be allowed to obscure the centrality of the academic mission of museums and performances. Moreover, while the U.S. Congress’s stimulus bill is going to improve the financial health of the sciences, there is not yet anything comparable to support the Performing Arts. There is no Symphony or Opera Company in the world that survives on ticket prices – all are heavily subsidized, either by their governments, by their universities, or by corporate/charitable “sponsors.” At present, the major civic symphonies & opera companies are in crisis because of the losses that their sponsors have sustained. This makes universities like ours much more important as venues for the performing arts than they usually are.

University presses also tend to be targets in times like these, but they, too serve crucial academic functions for those of us in book-writing disciplines. Despite the view from the – largely article-writing – sciences that “everything is on line” and that books on paper are dying out, in fact the opposite is true. Every year more new books are published than before. University presses are the normal publishers of academic works that add to knowledge, as opposed to those which “popularize” the knowledge already discovered/created by others. Both kinds of books are essential to culture. Because all university presses specialize – that is, they publish in particular fields or for particular audiences – each such press fills a niche that, if emptied, has effects for the entire ecology of academic research. At Iowa, in particular, our press has an international reputation in creative writing, not surprisingly, and helps sustain the writers in the workshops for which our university is best known.
____________________________

In order to graduate in four years, students must complete 15 s.h. each semester. Full-time status however is 12 s.h. and students are charged only for those 12 s.h. Additional credit hours are free. Some other CIC institutions charge students for each semester hour taken. It might be responsible to at least charge for 15 s.h. which is full-time and all over that amount could be “free.”
____________________________

It may well be that the local press reports only glimpses of options debated by the University in the wake of the budget crisis.

Innovation science is my hobby and it seems more imagination could be used in place of old solutions that may cause a short term relive and lead to long term problems. I hope the University is not considering
solutions similar to those made by executives of failed companies. All of us have taken classes early in our education that taught us balancing simple math equations. First of all, it needs to be acknowledged that it is not known what areas will make any University strong in the future. Therefore, a good option is to think how to grow the University by expanded enrollment, research, and outreach, in place of using the subtraction operator. It seems that for a public university, the future could be more certain if enrollment comes ahead of research. This sequence does not imply that the research will diminish.

Making decisions based on the federal dollars is only a short term solution, as in the future we will see much less of it due the growing national expenditure. The research funding model of the past may well be largely recorded in the history books. It is hard to imagine that a model where creativity is limited to writing and organizing proposals rather the creation itself will survive.

Examples of Possible Solutions:
1. Some colleges need to establish, in some cases reestablish, programs that have been eliminated on the grounds of being technology vs science based. Some point to three-year BS degree programs, certificates in professional domains, etc. The nation needs plenty of people who will use hands and brains at the same time. These ?more down to earth programs? will fill a gap between community colleges and universities.

2. We may want to revisit the reeducation area by offering classes at BS/MS level that would benefit those that look for getting different skills. Universities should stay ahead of new businesses that get created rather than simply following or ignoring them. For example, vast majority of people working in renewable energy, in particular wind industry, have not received any formal education in the job domain. This is one of plenty areas of opportunities. Incidentally one of the community colleges, the Iowa Lakes College, has capitalized on the wind industry opportunity by growing from essentially zero to the best recognized College in the nation in just a few years. I am sure that at this time Iowa Lakes does not worry about what to eliminate but they make decisions on what to grow. Similar examples can be found in nursing, computer science, geography, and so on.

3. The outreach program deserves a serious consideration and the University may have more than enough people to run it. Opportunities are plentiful, ranging from organizing expensive courses to conventions and entrepreneurial ventures.

4. Be prepared that in years to come we will need to do more with less.

____________________________

One tremendous “expense-reduction tool” would be to eliminate the relatively new and very pricy chief of staff position, which of course is under President Mason’s tutelage. Past presidents have, for some reason, not had the need for a chief of staff. Just a suggestion, as I have yet to hear a compelling reason why President Mason needs a chief of staff when her predecessors did not. Creating this position, particularly in the current economic climate, seemed utterly foolish.
____________________________

Departments need anonymous ways for individuals to suggest budget reductions – that can be submitted to be reviewed outside of the department that they are in so they will be looked at critically.
____________________________

I think it would be useful for the UI Community to know the names of each member of the seven working groups. There should be an easy way for individuals to communicate directly with working group members.
____________________________

Apparently in the works is a change from leasingc service vehicles to purchasing vehicles, within
Facilities Management.This makes sense as this department can repair and do maintenance on these vehicles so once they are paid for, continued maintenance should provide many years of service without leasing. I would suggest that the choice of vehicle be decided upon with the users input as the primary driver as to the type of vehicle. There is strong evidence that this choice has been made without repgard for the staff that will utilize them. As they work in very hot and cold conditions, vehicles with sufficient heat is vital.There are no places to warm up from 5-7am when the temp is often single digits and wind chills. Also, some vehicles allow hauling of mulch and larger tools and some do not. There are smaller sized trucks that fit easily on walks if sanding or working close to grounds projects.Buying is smarter than leasing, but the type of vehicle seems to be a foregone conclusion, without the users input for what is practical and safe.
____________________________

Dear Colleagues,

Many years ago the University of Georgia began using Lottery money from the state to fund higher education for those students who have a certain grade point average and are residents. I am not certain if this is something that would be possible for Iowa, but have heard from my Georgia colleagues that it has been a tremendous opportunity for students to study at UGA.
____________________________

I have an idea of a way to generate money for the UI: Why don’t we ticket the people that are smoking on UI property? I know the University has been very vocal about the smoking changes with ‘no smoking’ signs posted everywhere and assistance for people to stop smoking, but people are still ignoring the new rules (especially students). This would not only generate a ton of money but also help by lowering health insurance costs for the smokers and non-smokers who have to breathe in the smoky air, thus saving more money. Walking to lunch I counted 8 people smoking on UI property in my 5 minute walk. At $50.00 a ticket (or more!) that would definitely bring in some money. Just a suggestion…Thank you and keep up the good work!
____________________________

I can’t really understand why all of this can’t be solved by one action: selling the Jakson Pollock’s mural. This is one piece that is among numerous others of greater importance at UIMA. Not only could the selling of the mural bring in desperately needed funds immediately, its purchase would reduce the financial burden upon the museum and the University in the future. Now that the mural has an appraised value the insurance needed to cover the piece will skyrocket. Though there are many on campus that don’t want to lose the piece I think more emphasis should be put on the amazing and one-of-a-kind works that the museum has, such as the African Art collection which contains works from tribes that no longer exist. People say that they museum will lose its identity with the loss of the Pollock and I feel that to be a pathetic viewpoint when the museum has so much more to offer that doesn’t come from an artist that is completely replicable and was a horrible alcoholic and abuser.

_______________________

The University needs to be treated the same way we approach investments. In fact, in many ways, it is becoming a business entity.

Diversification is the key. We need then create more programs rather than consider eliminating them. The programs need to be packaged in a variety of different ways. Some ideas from marketing, that one of the future, could be useful here. The university could operate with low, even zero, state funding provided that it offers more programs, i.e., it remains highly diversified. My definition of a program could be somewhat different than that of many years ago.

There is no one administrative solution fitting all units. While some areas of this and any other university are in the 21st century, others are not exactly there, especially when it comes to how they operate.

It is obvious that productivity in academia has to increase. The number of faculty will likely decrease in years to come, the number of programs will increase for successful universities, and it is up to us to determine the number of students attending our classes. All this could be argued from a multitude of perspectives.

One of the biggest mistakes being made is due to the implicit assumption that the environment in which a university operates is somewhat static. Everything evolves, including the educational and research landscape.

We need to be careful how we craft solutions as they may be designed using yesterday?s experience and would work yesterday, however, will not work well for the university of tomorrow.

Having worked with processes ranging from medicine to industry, combustion and wind energy I fully see the university analogy, just happening at different scale.

The University needs to continuously evolve.

________________________________

I’ve recently heard talk of mandatory furloughs. This raises a few
questions in my mind and I’d like to share a few budget thoughts since
you were all nice enough to ask.
________________________________

-Why does the University not have a rainy day fund for budget
shortfalls? Seems to be a practice that has served me well in my
personal life. Perhaps the flooding has used all of that up and this is
not a fair question.

-Why do so many of the budgets the University has have to be spent in
that fiscal year, or you lose the money? One way to look at that is
encouraging the spend it or lose it mentality. One could also perceive
it as I must spend all of my budget or else it will look like I have too
much money, when in actuality, there are waves in every budget cycle.
Some years you have fixed expense that in other years you don’t. I
believe the spend it or lose it mentality we all face isn’t in the best
interest of the University.

-My very limited view of the world, would lead me to suggest that we
cut, or put on hold existing building projects and/or new building
projects instead of mandatory furloughs. Several projects come to
mind… The new rec center that is being built. Put it on hold. The
new data center that is being planned. Put it on hold for a few years.

Any other non flood related building should be delayed until budgets
are more accommodating. Necessity is the mother of all invention. I’d
bet we could get creative about finding space to house new servers for a
few years if asked.

-Athletics is another whole enchilada that is ripe to be cut, put on a
diet, etc. Again, I don’t know the specifics of their funding and it is
probably protected in some elaborate way or maybe they are funding them
selves but when coaches are making millions of dollars per year, it does
make it hard to believe we really need furloughs.

-Hiring… This last year I’ve witnessed a number of new hires. It is
a shame that we couldn’t have foreseen this budget shortfall earlier
given the financial collapse that’s been unfolding since August,
especially given the money we knew we were going to have to spend on
flooding and been a little more selective on the hiring front.

I wish you luck in making these hard decisions. Please concentrate on
what the core values of the University are and make the hard decisions
that need to be made in this time of need. You will not please every
one. Continue to communicate and the troops (including me) will rally
behind your leadership.

________________________________

I work intricately with a number of student orgs including two board positions. I have a detailed knowledge of the financial system for student organizations as well as the budgeting, requesting, and supplemental funding processes here. My suggestion is to provide student orgs that run a surplus in a given year an added bonus the following year. If my org comes in under budget, we get say a 5% bonus on the amount we asked for. Right now, orgs have no incentive to cut costs or reduce spending. Give us a reason to be fiscally responsible to promote personal and professional money management. Thanks!
________________________________

I respectfully suggest that all open executive level positions that do not direct affect student services be left unfilled for the next FY.

Consideration of using an office assistant pool and leaving open positions unfilled for the next FY.

I would suggest that all classroom lighting be managed through motion sensor activation. I can’t even begin to count how many empty classrooms there are at night with no lights on.

I’ve visited Hillcrest Dining with my son. I’d suggest that a greater emphasis be put on wasting less food by having more made to order than sitting around.

I also respectfully suggest that all salaries over $100,000 be frozen for the next budget year. That salary places one in the top level of income in the nation, and that level has benefitted the greatest over the last 8 years.

All non-functional remodeling, i.e. those for aesthetics only, be postponed for 1 year. Replacement of worn fixtures that are beyond repair is not included.

No contracts for consulting services that could be provided by faculty members of the regents universities should be permitted.
________________________________

I’ll be joining the UI community this fall (as DEO in EPLS in the College of Education) and very much look forward to it. In the interim, I’m happy to offer my $.02 regarding the budget cuts. I would urge the central administration to utilize the budget crunch as an opportunity to consider whether the UI really needs a grad school or whether all of its duties could be better and more efficiently accomplished by decentralizing many of its functions. This is consistent with many great universities’ structures (e.g., Stanford, Harvard, Penn) and today it was announced that the University of Minnesota has decided to move in this direction (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/02/12/grad).
________________________________

I heard on the news this morning that one of the suggestions was to increase in-state tuition to fund scholarships for those who cannot afford their tuition. I would love to be able to help all of those who cannot afford tuition however, all of us are affected by the economy and soon we will not be able to afford tuition. Please consider other means to cover this expense.
________________________________

• One way to increase revenue is to build distance education classes. This could be relevant to courses and departments that are scheduled to be cut due to lack of enrollments. The Ed Admin program is one example of a department that found new life and new distance students from the state that helped them keep the department and keep the courses and program they offer.
• Another option rather than cutting professional staff is to go to a 4 day week in some offices.
• Freeze salary increase for those making over $100,000 /year.
• Freeze travel or decrease its frequency.
• Host training locally for staff and faculty. Allow vendors to subsidize training.
• Mandate that all departments on campus use ICON to save from using multiple course management systems.
• Allow faculty to use Itunes University to host there podcasts of lectures. (I believe it is free to universities)
• Support faculty recording their own lectures using the new technology available that is low cost.
• Support Open initiatives to attract more students to Iowa and distance education. Provide distance education students some samples and free lectures like MIT.
• Take advantage of new technologies that allow small run book publishing for faculty.
• Demand higher interactive standards for ICON features and distance education courses. To hold and attract more students.
• I like this one: have the default printer on all university computers be the Acrobat pdf (save as electronic copy) so as to reduce paper waste.
• Bring about a full support model for the Writing University project to attract student to our strengths.
• Cut football and basketball coaches salaries in the interest of public perception of our spending.
• Build new buildings on dry ground rather than a flood plain. If possible to avoid future costs.
• Work hard to reduce the image of Iowa as a party campus—we are the writing university, I am proud of that.
• Support an online degree in Instructional Design and Technology.
• Use social networking software to build social networks for distance education students and to attract students to the Writing University (it is critical to retention of distance students)
• Build small studios around campus where faculty can record their lectures using powerpoint, media and annotation using a Tablet PC and camtasia or screen flow on the mac
• Upgrade the English and writing programs so they can attract students to our strengths.
• Look into solar panel technology as it is now more cost effective
• Have a writing provost with powers to empower the writing university project
• Reduce students use of alcohol by having writing training/seminars in the evenings
• Start faculty building mixed mode (open to both distance and traditional students) classes using ICON discussion features and recorded narrated lectures.
• Allow faculty to have online office hours using Eluminate virtual classroom technology
• Allow faculty to build courses with UNI and Iowa State students using virtual classroom technology
• Rather than have faculty travel to UNI or Des Moines train them to use Virtual classroom technology
• Support faculty that want to buy computers for home and office usage, reduce computer purchases by department, move to a new model that reduces costs
• Have faculty present at conferences using Eluminate or Adobe Connect rather than travelling
• Strengthen the ICN network into an Internet backbone
• Revamp ICN classrooms to also use virtual classroom technology
• Build more virtual classroom for attracting students working in the state and beyond
• Reward employees that come up with cost savings ideas.
• Support diverse computing (PC,Mac, Linux) to reduce costs
• Outsource IT support, develop standards for faculty and staff computer tools
• Insist on faculty using computer tools that are available on campus to build lecture material and labs
• Declare minimum standards for ICON course sites.
• Standardize on mp4 technology.
• Protect the marketplace from vendors that use predatory pricing practices. What is the cost to the vitality of the marketplace when a vendor dumps their product on the market for free.
• Get faculty to start first iterations of online courses and then reward them for further iterations
• Start endowments to help use avoid budget cut problems in the future

I respectfully suggest a strong effort to rein in consultant contracts. I believe there are not many instances where consultants bring knowledge or expertise that is not available on campus; rather, I think in many cases leaders use consultants to provide justification for plans already made or to soften the blow of difficult decisions.

Perhaps we could set up a special advisory committee, made up of qualified volunteers, to review proposals to hire consultants. The committee would evaluate all proposals over a specified — low — cost threshold and work to identify resources available on campus to meet the needs of the parties proposing to hire consultants.

I can only guess at how much money could be saved, but would be surprised if it were not in the hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

________________________________

The purchase of the Athletic Club cannot be made while retaining administrative credibility regarding budgetary issues. That purchase alone gives thousands of your employees the appearance that the budget cuts do not apply to all. It is not a purchase our institution can make at this time. Dropping this purchase idea will improve your employee morale.
________________________________

One possible way to save money is to have volunteers help with the rebuilding. For instance, you could have different student groups adopt a garden, similar to “adopt a road” programs on certain highways.
________________________________

One item in particular stands out as grossly excessive: The head football coach’s salary. Without a doubt, his salary was excessive in the “good” times. But now, his salary is disgraceful to both our State and University. Anyone truly concerned with belt-tightening should take a long, hard look at the value added of those 3.5 million dollars. I realize the football program is a profitable unit, but one cannot dispute that football is not at the core of what this University does or should do. First and foremost, the academic programs must be preserved. With the concerns of Hancher, the Art Museum and the ongoing viability of the Music Department, allocating such an enormous percentage of the cut to a single individual is not only illogical, but also embarrassing.
________________________________

Reduce coaches salaries please. I compare that to Wall Street CEO excess compensation.
________________________________

1. Use the financial crisis as an excuse for doing away with tenure. If done properly it will have no effect on academic freedom. In the longer run, the ability to weed out unproductive faculty (and departments) will be invaluable in saving money.

2. The University of Iowa has some outstanding departments (and colleges), particularly on the western side of the river. But it has some departments that are money sinks with very low productivity – I know, I ran one. They are often (though not always) smaller departments. Getting rid of one such department will not save much money. Getting rid of a lot of them will. Again, there will be pain, but the economic crisis can be used as the excuse to inflict such pain. A less difficult way of doing this is to require forced mergers on low productivity departments, making sure that a low-productivity department is not allowed to merge with another low-productivity department.

3. The use of differential work load models could save a fortune. Require faculty with low research productivity to teach much, much more. Have transparent and rigorously enforced work load measurement models to record the output of individuals.

As a general matter, a smaller more focused university is likely to be cheaper to run than a larger, very broad one.
________________________________

Here’s a new budget plan: axe the unneeded Uiowa police. We’ve got two other bloated municipal agencies that can write tickets just as well.

________________________________

I suggest combining organizations that are supported by the university and reduce and combine their budgets.
________________________________

1. Tax the athletic program more vigorously for its access to a ready pool of students and other resources. Move to more vigorously make the athletic program more than an independent farm team for the pros. Without a vital instructional program, the sports programs would have no ready supply of players. 50% of athletic income should come into the general fund and have oversight there for its expenditure for the good of the community. Such a solution is comparable to the tax on research income which the central administration extracts from one part of the university for the well being of others that are needed for its instructional effort (e.g. Greek, etc) that have not visible forms of external support. Such an income tax would also blunt the abuses of sports teams with an unspecificed multiplicity of very high paid coaches with bonus packages for Bowl games and NCAA championships, that are nice for the alumni pride, but are not mainline thrusts for the survival and vitality of the institution and are currently only limited by their ability to internally fund these positions.

2. If permission is required of the regents to implement this change of operating arrangement, immediately petition the regents for this reallocation.

3. Make a total inventory of all the motor vehicles under license as being operated by the UofI. Perform a zero base inventory of their need, vs checking occasional cars out of a common motor pool. Reducing the number would also reduce expenditures for fuel, upkeep and congestion.

4. Make a commitment to the University that fully half of the cost savings as dire as they are should come in reduced administration and Vice Presidents and Deputy Deans that seem to have proliferated without bound and constraints and whose salaries are disproportionately high compared to the typical salaries. Streamline the chain of command, before you make inroads on the main income producer you have: the instructional and research arm of the U.

5. Make a commitment to not interfere with the Universities academic mission, and resolve to attack it last while attempting to be more economical in how things are done, rather than the present “Soloman” approach of apportioning the pain pro rata over all arms of the University. The test for economy should be “…what happens to the UI Educational Mission ….” if this or that activity, office, assist Dean, or VP was desolved?

As an example, is it truly necessary for the Chief of Campus Safety to be a Vice President of the University? Sure the role is important, but my point is that the administrative staff of the University looks very top heavy, with salaries growing at an unimagined rate - when in the same breathe the professoriate languishes in the bottom or next to bottom in Big 10 salary comparability - even before the present crisis. Even without any cuts, the prospect is clearly on the table that salary comparability is tabled for the foreseeable future for them.

________________________________

I have some ideas.
Energy saving:
-making most things electronic
-better insulation for buidings, some windows are single-pannelled
Freeze or reduce (it would have to be voluntary) extremely high salaries (I guess anything over a quarter million dollars)
Keep the TAships. Little funding is already making people back up from getting their grad education here. In the long run, it will be detrimental for the UI.
Reduce or eliminate free distribution of The Daily Iowan. I see many free copies unread everyday.
Invest in university housing. As of now, they are of such poor quality that many people do not even consider living there (myself included)
________________________________

I’ve heard that you’re reducing funding in many areas of the University. Why then are you undertaking this study on binge drinking?

________________________________

1. Some of the support services within the University have become very expensive to use. I propose allowing departments to get bids from external as well as internal vendors. If the external vendors are less expensive the work should go to them. I realize this could result in a drop of revenue for some service departments and might ultimately require eliminating that department. However if the internal support services cannot compete with external vendors then perhaps these areas need to become more efficient or should ultimately be eliminated from our University. It makes little sense from my perspective - non-accountant - to offer services at a higher price than available externally. For example, does it really cost $200 for the IT folks to activate a data port that has already been physically installed?

– I would like to see the UI work on phasing out its collegiate-level IT systems. I find that the these often:

Duplicate the work of ITS
Are less competent in support of staff and faculty
Are run with surprisingly little oversight and accountability
2. In general, I would like to see the Provost’s office/Business Office make more of a concerted effort to measure the IMPACT of non-academic programs and require that such programs be consistently accountable. Candidates for more sustained evaluation are:
The Center for Teaching
The ESL program
The working-in-a-multicultural environment program (in HR)
Workplace interventions from Organizational Effectiveness
Classes offered by Organizational Effectiveness

Similarly, I’d like the Office of the Provost adopt a policy that it will not implement new non-academic programs without insisting on some clear method of evaluating the program. This extends to new initiatives such as the President’s sustainability initiative. I think it extremely important for the University to show that its new ideas/programs have real and provable substance.

________________________________

Let’s renegotiate travel contracts. I was able to go online and book with the companies either directly or through expedia and find at least $100 per day cost savings for travel.
________________________________

I suggest we adopt a GEF football ticket tax of $10 per ticket for each football game with the proceeds added to the GEF fund. I’d suggest it for basketball as well but I understand this might not a money raiser.
________________________________

Several technology updates have occurred on campus and I am unsure of the actual “need” for these which would suggest more thought needs to be put into where the money is spent.

Example 1: What is the true need for the many flat screen TV’s that have been placed around Med Labs, EMRB and such? The TV’s display the weather which can be accessed from anyone’s personal computer, advertise seminars and call for posters which are also found on fliers and mass emails sent to faculty/staff/students. The cost of the TV’s, mounting hardware and wiring may not amount to huge savings but during times of budget crisis wiser spending is warranted.

Example 2: Replacing all phones with caller ID may display local and University calls but I have received many calls from cell phones and out of state that are not displayed. Again, what is the need?
While these items have already been paid for, I think better review of where the money is going and what is the direct need is warranted.

A place to begin saving can be in better use of mass emails and less paper mailings. Each month I receive campus mailings advertising the financial courses offered; this could easily be sent via email, saving paper and someone’s time. Organizational Effectiveness can advertise through email and their home page on the new course offerings instead of print mailings which are quickly recycled.
________________________________

I was just thinking that it would be great if we could accept staff charge for co-pays. It seems to me like it would help my department capture more of the staff co-pays. I have had several staff ask if they could, and many come un-prepared to make their co-pay.

Also-I am not sure how hard this would be, but if UIHC staff could opt out of receiving their hospital bill. I know that I just follow my EOB and my charges online on the Wellmark website. I certainly do not need the statement; it could save a lot of the cost of mailing and paper. I know this would not work everyone, but I was just thinking about UIHC staff, especially those that work in clinic situations, could be more responsible for following their balances.
________________________________

I for one am sorry to see this discontinued as my husband is a monthly patient in the Clinical Cancer Center. I hope something has been put in place to assist the Iowa Care patient’s and Medicaid patient’s. We are fortunate that we can afford to pay to park but I know others will find this a struggle and might not receive the care they need due to the financial impact parking could create for them. I hope this has been thought of in advance and I understand the financial impact this has on the hospital having to spend 1.2 million annually but one would think the University would be willing to give a little too.

I am concerned that totally eliminating the parking validation for outpatient visits at the hospital will have a negative impact on patients’ decision to return to our hospital. I understand the need to cut back but how about subsidizing 50% of the cost instead of totally eliminating this reimbursement and alienating our patients – our real bread and butter.
________________________________

Stop sending out those postcards with new docs that go from mailbox to trash.
Stop unsolicited UI mailings and newsletters. None of the doctors I work for ever read the “Meet So and So” cards that get sent out introducing a new UI physician. Most folks here are too busy to waste precious time reading items that may be of interest to some but not all. Why can’t employees elect (via on-line check list) to receive items rather than being so wasteful as to send items to everyone? A massive amount of resources and time are wasted this way.

Why is there a need for very expensive monitors placed in different areas of the UI? Are employees expected to stand there and read things that show across the screen? If so, isn’t that a waste of employee time? How did we survive before?
________________________________

Internal medicine sends out a time slip thru the campus mail to each physician who will then fill out vacation, sick etc time and mail it back to be recorded by the department. If this were done over a web form monthly, it would be more efficient. An email reminder with the web link could be sent to every physician monthly to remind him/her to fill out the form..
________________________________

Delivery of mail for people we know are long gone. We keep getting junk mail delivered for pulmonary fellows that have been gone for longer than I’ve been working here (5 years!)
Throw it before too many people handle it to deliver it just so it can be thrown.
________________________________

Stop campus mailing printed copy of patient letters to UI docs. If they care about a certain patient they will look it up in IPR.

The paper copies are thrown (I go thru my doctors’ mail, I know this!)

Same with the blue radiology consult papers that are campus mailed. These go in the trash.

This would not only save on paper and the envelope but the cost of paying someone to print out the letters and throw them in campus mail paying the people to shuffle all the mail from one place to another so that it can be thrown in the shredder bin and the cost of the people who provide the gray bins to shred it.
________________________________

A thought only, but would it be possible to cut down the printing of the Compass and send only a few copies to departments for routing? Or perhaps move it to an electronic format?
________________________________

My idea is to stream line the number of garbage cans in the staffing areas. This would save housekeeping time and cost for liners. It may sound small, but it is also environmentally sound. In my immediate scheduling area alone, we have 7 garbage cans. (I am not speaking of the can for recycling documents, but only the cans for garbage with liners in them.) We could easily get by with 1-2. It was the same when I was in billing, and I am sure many other areas are the same. We do not need 1 garbage can per desk. I’m sure it would improve efficiency to get up and move every so often to throw something away and housekeeping could spend that time in other ways, too.
________________________________

My suggestion is to quit printing the Noon News at the UIHC everyday. I think it is a waste of paper, resources and money. Either just print 1 each week with condensed information from the week, or just leave it available online for those interested to read it. It may be something small, but it could add up!
________________________________

How about faxing the patient letters that the hospital sends out daily instead of using US mail?. This would save on postage, letter head and envelopes as there must be thousands that go out daily.
________________________________

We have all received letters that Environmental Services will only pick up our office garbage once a week and they have provided extra bags and a receptacle in the hallway for us to use. I would say that they don’t even have to collect it once a week—let us manage our office garbage. Most of us dump it on Fridays and if they could pick up the hallway garbage daily or weekly, the environmental services staff could be retrained to do other tasks. We are sorely in need of phlebotomists in the Pathology dept in the clinical labs and you only need a h.s. diploma and a 3 month training course at Kirkwood. If any of the staff being “furloughed” could be offered the opportunity to change “careers” everyone would benefit. We can’t hire new staff, but certainly we should be able to retrain our current staff!
________________________________

One idea is to cut out all the mailings the U puts out for its own faculty such as the UIHC “meet the new doctor” cards, all the information about financial classes, etc.
Anything that can be put out in a broadcast email should be eliminated.
People throw away the junk mail and that wastes money and resources.
Deleting email costs nothing.

UI Budget Updates

More Operating Expenses Suggestions

Pages

Recent Posts

Links