Massive debt hangs over Housing Dept.

Wondering why the light in your room has yet to be fixed after two weeks?
Housing can afford to pay for only one maintenance worker for the housing system.

February 03, 2010
By Benjamin Voloshin
Columnist

Those of you living on campus, such as myself, may not realize how UIS spends our room and board fees.

An examination of the campus housing budget offers an insight into the financial mechanisms handling our university. The astronomical debt the university owes for building facilities such as Founders Residence Hall, the townhouses, and even the apartments, UIS restricts housing operating revenue to using only about 40 cents on the dollar.

According to projections for the 2011 fiscal year, our university will forward approximately 53 percent of its housing budget towards settling the debt service. Personnel costs bring this total to about 60 percent of the entire budget, which today consists of about $6 million. That means about $3.6 mil is going to debt, leaving us with only $2.4 mil to spend on what we need to actually run our facilities.

I hope that was enlightening for those of you wondering why the overhead light in your room has yet to be fixed after two weeks. Housing can only afford to pay for one maintenance man for the entire housing system. In fact, at one point our residential carpenter had about 227 work orders to complete. If there is something Housing cannot get done through our own staff, UIS must then utilize outside services, like electricians – services that cut that much more out of Housing’s already thinly stretched budget.

So what happens when we pay off our massive debt? According to John Ringle, the UIS Housing Director, we’re still paying for some of our oldest apartments on the east side of campus, and will continue paying for them until 2018 (for some perspective, these were built decades ago). But for these buildings, Ringle says, we only had to pay a 3 percent mortgage rate – a deal, as national averages, especially over the last few years, have reached triple that figure.

However, Housing can still make changes to save money. The telephone service, for example, consumes about 2.6 percent of the budget and eliminating this service will allow for an extra $125,000 in spending. Housing may allocate these funds to the meager 2.7 percent devoted to maintenance, thus nearly doubling the original amount (which means you would most likely get that light fixed sooner).

Keep in mind, though, UIS is a new school, and these monetary issues are typical of any startup business. Not to mention UIS in particular has been hit hard by the recession, and relief won’t come soon, at least until the state can find a way to soften its $12 billion debt so that more funds may be sent from Champaign to our campus.

Also, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had recently ranked Illinois as the nation's fifth-worst litigation climate for businesses. The last thing Illinois needs – for our campus’ sake – is bad press.

The best way to save our university, or at least help it, is up to the students, to do what we can to make the school seem more attractive to those considering enrollment. Remember that we are our school’s greatest asset. Anything we do to impact or reduce our costs will affect the rates we pay.

If we take part in the growing sustainability movement on campus, for example, we save the school money. Recycling and bringing reusable cups when buying drinks are progressive, but there are even easier ways to contribute: taking shorter or colder showers, reducing paper waste, and conducting self-audits of our own carbon footprint do more than any one individual can, granted we all participate.

By starting new clubs and vying for new majors, or perhaps even making up our own new, original ones, we can help out enrollment. Helping our school relies on getting our name out there. Some of us may have heard the running joke satirizing our anonymity, as we are often regarded (or regard ourselves) as the “red-headed stepchild” of the U of I system. But just because we are new and underfunded does not mean we are weak.

This campus is designed for leaders; it is a blank slate aching for students to turn it into a masterpiece. It is up to us to market this institution. If done so properly, we may see a change, not only in our reputation, but in how we perceive of ourselves, as well.

We must not lose sight of UIS as a community with a common goal, and it takes the participation of each and every one of us, undergrads and grads alike, to be critical of this establishment in order to make it the best it can be. Look for the little ways we can improve our school, because those are what often go overlooked. Keep in mind: the devil is in the details.