Talking Stick - January/February 2015 - 53

TS: One of the challenges of these
contributions seems to be how they can
differ from institution to institution
and even from year to year. What are
some of the different ways you've seen
these fees be assessed to a housing
department?

John Sears: If you are part of
a university or college auxiliary
organization, chances are good that you
are familiar with a common practice
of auxiliaries contributing to the
university in some fashion or formula.
Regardless of the label, auxiliary
housing organizations are often at
the forefront of these arrangements.
Institutional culture, traditions, fiscal
practices and policies, and politics also
play a part in determining contribution
arrangements between the housing
organization and the institution.
Arrangements can span from the
strictly formal institutional formula
on one end to an informal handshake
on the other, as well as recurring
annual arrangements and one-time
contributions.

Allison Smith: Some schools assess
these fees as either a percentage of
revenues or expenditures while some
assess using a cost allocation method.
When the question was asked on the
Business Operations listserv, we heard
that it was determined in many ways:
3 percent based on the previous fiscal
year's revenue; 3.25 percent of annual
expenditures; based on assignable
square footage; based on unit full-time
employees relative to total institutional
full-time employees; based on total unit
costs relative to the total institutional
costs; and based on some combination
of costs, number of employees, and
assignable square footage.

Sears: Part of the challenge is
language. Contributions on one
campus might be called "indirect
costs," but those on another might
be called "taxes," "overhead," or
"administrative fees." It is not easy
to compare notes on contribution
practices across institutions because the
methods and terms vary greatly.
Campus culture plays a role
as well. An institution's current
arrangement may be the result of
years of cumulative decisions that cut
across institutional needs, politics,
budget conditions, reorganizations, and
leadership changes. On my campus,
the contribution is called "indirect
costs" and is determined annually by
a formula based on the operations,
maintenance, administrative, and
security needs of the auxiliaries. The
formula on my campus is informed by
federal guidance from the Education
Act of 1981.
Auxiliaries may also be asked
to contribute in other ways such as
support for salaries for programs and
services outside of the auxiliary.

norb Dunkel: Many housing officers
believe they are the only entity paying
the auxiliary overhead when, in fact,
on most campuses all auxiliary units
are paying the overhead fee. And as
my colleagues have mentioned, just as
the fee is defined differently from one
campus to another it is also computed
differently. The difficulty for many
housing operations paying this fee is
that the fee is generally determined very
late in the fiscal year, many times well
after the housing budget is developed
and approved for the following fiscal
year.
Trying to project the increase in
auxiliary overhead while also trying to

project the increase in utility costs (on
many campuses utility increases are not
known until well into the fiscal year)
and projecting the increase in wages
and benefits just makes the task of
budget development that much more
difficult for housing budget staff.
TS: When these auxiliary fees are
collected from the housing department,
how does the college or university
generally use them? Are they
earmarked to cover other particular
expenses, or do they go into a general
fund?

Sears: The contributions, as indirect
costs, go into a general fund and are
directed to support the operations,
maintenance, administrative, and
security functions.
Smith: Again, from our call-out to the
ACUHO-I Business Operations listserv,
we heard several different answers.
We heard that fees are used to fund
various services on campus, such as
police, procurement, human resources,
general administration, and general
counsel. Another said they were used
for general facility and services as a
system (not just that campus in a large
university system). One was to fund the
cost recovery of various departments
and services, such as the sustainability
office, mail services, operating
engineers supervision, mechanical/
electrical supervision, fire prevention,
police, telecom switchboard, loading
dock operations, vice presidents'
offices, office of the controller, student
accounts, etc. Another said it was
used to fund security (fire and police),
grounds and general maintenance,
university information technology, the
president's office, finance, human

nORB DUnkeL

JOHn SeARS

Associate vice president for student affairs at the
University of Florida in Gainesville

Assistant vice president and director of housing and
residential life at the UniversityJANUARY + FEBRUARY 2015
of Rhode Island in Kingston.

53
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