Savings sleuths

Savings
sleuths

Employees recognized for sniffing out cost savings for
university
…………………………………………………………………

BY DANA BENSON
Rice News Staff

During this time
of escalating energy costs, a group of facilities and engineering
employees were recognized for their efforts to bring Rice’s
utility expenses under control.

The facilities
and engineering staff shared the spotlight at the May Rice
Board of Trustees meeting with several other staff members
who helped save the university money. The employees all
were the recipients of the Employee Recognition Award, through
which Rice President Malcolm Gillis and the trustees honor
staff for their exemplary work.

The facilities
and engineering team of Doug Tomlinson, operations manager;
Mark Gardner, energy analyst; Richard Stearman, controls
supervisor; and Eric Valentine, energy management coordinator,
steered the university toward significant savings through
an after-hours audit of campus fumehoods.

Conducted last
December, the audit determined the extent to which fumehoods
were left open in the university’s laboratories. Results
indicated that as much as $460,000 per year could be saved
if fumehoods were closed when not in use. After the audit
report was released, academic departments responded with
initiatives to monitor the hoods. Within two months, average
fumehood heights in Dell Butcher Hall had decreased by one-third,
and Rice’s March electric bill was $20,000 less than
budgeted.

“The fumehood
audit not only helped save dollars almost immediately, but
it also sparked a renewed focus on creative energy conservation
across campus. We are proud of the work of this team,”
Gillis said in his presentation at the board meeting.

Energy use is
not the only area where the university achieved savings.
Other employees helped realize savings in the areas of loan
processing and tax expenditures on parking revenue.

Dow Hudlow, assistant
controller for asset accounting, oversees Rice’s loan
processing and collection, an area that has been managed
internally since the university implemented the Banner financial
system. When the loan processing manager left the university,
Hudlow explored outsourcing as an alternative to filling
the position. He identified two companies that offered a
cost savings of nearly $50,000 over in-house loan processing
and one offering attractive features for borrowers, including
additional payment methods, electronic billing and more.

The university
is moving forward with outsourcing this area, and it is
expected to be complete by the beginning of fiscal year
2002.

“We are
proud to recognize Dow’s creativity and initiative
to seek a more cost-effective solution to loan processing
at Rice with greater benefit to students,” Gillis commented.

A trip to the
Texas Medical Center by Eugen Radulescu to review the automated
parking system there resulted in more savings to the university.
Radulescu, Rice’s transportation manager, learned during
his review at the Texas Medical Center that institutions
there did not pay sales tax on parking revenues. Rice, however,
had been paying state sales tax on revenues from its parking.

Mary Ruth Kubricht,
disbursements manager in the controller’s office, contacted
the Tax Policy Division of the state comptroller’s
office and learned that indeed nonprofit institutions are
not required to pay sales tax on parking revenues earned
primarily from faculty, staff and students. She filled out
the necessary paperwork at the local branch of the comptroller’s
office, and Rice soon received a refund check with interest
for nearly $61,000.

Kubricht will
retire this summer after nearly 24 years of service to Rice.

“We salute
Eugen Radulescu and Mary Ruth Kubricht for their quick thinking,
perseverance and careful stewardship of Rice’s bottom
line,” Gillis commented in his presentation to the
board.