Students voice discontent at finance forum

By Catherine Bratic     10/9/08 7:00pm

Vice President for Finance Kathy Collins and Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman fielded questions at the Student Association meeting Monday night to a full house in an attempt to assuage students' concerns about the financial transformation planned for colleges and clubs. The changes will apply to over 150 clubs at Rice who currently have independent bank accounts, as well as each of the residential colleges, Forman said.

Forman began the meeting by reminding students that the plan was not yet finalized and emphasizing that the administration did not seek to limit student autonomy.

"[There's a] value I see in offering you all the independence that we do, both for the educational value on campus and for the value we all derive when we allow you to exercise your creativity," Forman said. "It's important to me that this plan does nothing to diminish your ability to exercise your creative instincts and independent spirit with which you've led the clubs in the past."

---

---

Collins followed Forman's introduction, thanking the students for their responses and laying out the details of the plan.

"What we're proposing is that we no longer create student clubs under the Rice taxpayer ID, and that we close accounts that have been set up under it," she said.

This is a future plan, Collins said, and is not intended to be carried out during the current semester.

"So why are we making this change now?" she said. "This is a crazy time in terms of federal regulation of education."

Collins pointed to a new questionnaire that has been sent to U.S. universities with the 40 highest endowments and a new IRS tax form. Rice is already having trouble keeping up with tax reporting for clubs and the increased scrutiny has put the university under pressure, she said.

"We shouldn't be having expenses and activity reported under the Rice taxpayer ID that's not picked up, that we're not reporting in our tax forms," Collins said.

She reiterated Forman's assertion that the administration has no plans to monitor club spending.

"We have zero interest in watching what you spend," Collins said. "The Controller's office doesn't have time. Imagine the volume of transactions. They're busy making sure that the invoice is there and that the funds are there."

One element of the plan that is being considered currently is giving club treasurers access to Rice's online banking system, BANNER, so that they can monitor their account balances on a daily basis, according to Collins. This would, among other things, allow treasurers to submit reimbursement requests online.

Another consideration is allowing the funds to accrue interest.

"If in fact we decide that allowing interest to be earned on balances is part of this plan, the interest rate at Rice is better than at Chase," Collins said.

Forman and Collins then opened the floor to student questions.

SA Director of Elections Tim Faust asked Collins and Forman to guarantee that the Division of Finance would not interfere with the purchasing choices of colleges and clubs.

Collins replied that that a lack of monitoring would be the general rule.

"The basic principle that I trust you all follow now is that expenses are not for personal purposes but for university purposes and for the mission of your clubs," she said. "I think there will be guidelines such as those, but there's not going to be approval by the Division of Finance of 'Yes, this is an appropriate expenditure.'"

Forman added that the Controller's involvement would mostly consist of "counting signatures."

Hanszen College President Abbie Ryan asked if colleges and clubs would still be able to make charitable donations.

"As a basic rule, one charity is not supposed to make contributions to another charity, and Rice is a charitable institution," Collins said. "But Rice has had a philosophy that it is appropriate to make reasonable contributions if the purpose is in keeping with the mission of the university."

Forman also reminded students that political contributions by clubs were unacceptable because Rice is a non-profit institution.

Lovett College senior Nathan Bledsoe asked Collins why no students were involved in the decision-making process, specifically at the beginning of the summer, when Collins first started planning these financial changes to student organizations' bank accounts.

Collins responded that although the details were undecided, the basic concept had full university support.

"That's why we're here," she said. "That's why we've got a working group set up with the treasurers, one meeting with blanket tax, graduate students, the head of the GSA, and the Jones School working through that. We're going to move in a deliberate pace."

Bledsoe added that students were apprehensive of further bureaucratic involvement in their finances.

"We're scared of the Allen Center," Bledsoe said. "We don't have good experiences when we're in there."

"The Allen Center scares me, too," Forman assured him.

Eastman Landry, a Will Rice College senior, said his biggest fear in the transition was a "cascading process," with more control being handed over every few years.

"I'm afraid of losing the institutional memory, looking back in 10 years being like 'Wow, what's happened to Rice?'" he said.

Philip asked Collins about the advantages that students would get from the proposed purchase card, or P-card, system.

Collins said Rice does not have the answers yet.

"The issue of whether or not we will have P-cards still needs to talked about," she said. "One big advantage is it is a way of paying, a great way to make arrangements if there's club that travels and there are registration fees."

Charles Lena, a Wiess College senior, voiced his doubts over whether or not the turnaround period for reimbursements would really be the promised 48 hours.

"In my office, we obviously use this system," Forman said. "I can't remember a time when it wasn't 48 hours."

Brown College treasurer Peter Steffensen said he worried about the timing of the financial restructuring.

"Why hasn't this been a concern in the past such that accountability would have been ensured?" Steffensen asked. "Would you be willing to sign a binding agreement not to infringe upon autonomy of the colleges?"

Forman rejected such an agreement.

"I understand the spirit, but it's not a realistic suggestion," Forman said. "A couple of times a year I let a college know that some planned event or activity is inappropriate. You guys are spending university money, and my job in particular is to make sure activities you carry out are within broadly defined parameters. Boundaries are boundaries, and it's our job to enforce those."

Lovett College President Dana Helbling asked whether colleges would be able to maintain additional external investment accounts.

Collins said Rice will not touch current endowments as part of these financial changes.

"They're already part of the Rice financial system, the CDs should run their course and we should talk about whether it makes sense to keep them together with other funds as endowments or for some other situation."

An anonymous student in a black shirt, asked if the final plan would be subject to approval by the student body.

"If we reach the end of the line, and you guys feel you haven't had a chance to participate, we will not have achieved our goal," Forman said. "It's our intent that when we get to the end of the process and are ready to outline a plan, you will all have had more than enough opportunity to express your views.

---