Economics professor Bill Harbaugh has filed a motion with the University Senate to monitor the University administration’s handling of records requests made by faculty.
Titled as a motion “to increase openness, transparency and shared governance by improving faculty access to information,” it seeks to create an “openness committee,” which would hear grievances from faculty who believe that their requests for records were not reasonably met. The committee would then recommend a course of action to the administration.
Also contained in the motion is a request that the administration follow the committee’s recommendation unless it can provide an explicit reason to do otherwise.
The motion will be introduced at today’s University Senate meeting and voted on at the Dec. 2 meeting.
Harbaugh said he was spurred to file the motion after trying to investigate recent cuts to the University’s Facilities and Administration Rate, also known as the Indirect Cost Return rate.
Associate Vice President of Research and Director of the Office of Research Services and Administration Paula Roberts said F&A funds are provided by the federal government along with research grants to pay for overhead costs associated with research, such as “utility bills, library costs and staffing fees.”
The rate is negotiated between the University and the Department of Health and Human Services and is included in the total research grant. However, the rate has dropped in recent years.
“When I came here, the ICC rate was 50 percent,” Harbaugh said. “Then it was cut down to 48 percent, and then 42 percent. That’s a pretty big hit to the University research budget.”
Roberts said a number of factors can lead to a decrease.
“There isn’t one specific thing you can say is the cause of the reduction,” Roberts said. “But space is very integral. If you’re not building a lot of space for research, that’s one major factor.”
Currently, space for research on campus is cramped, but with the recent completion of the Lorry I. Lokey Laboratories and plans underway for the Lewis Integrative Science Building, Roberts said she expects the rate to increase in coming years.
Harbaugh’s concerns came after he requested information from the administration on the F&A rate. He was told by University general counsel Melinda Grier that the records would cost $173.11 to obtain. When he asked for an explanation of the cost, he was told the document explaining why records were so expensive would cost $2.70.
In his filing, Harbaugh wrote that “These sorts of responses are not consistent with openness, transparency, or shared governance.”
University Senate President Peter Gilkey has sent the motion to the administration to determine whether it is within the power and purview of the Senate.
Members of the University administration declined to comment, as the motion has yet to be reviewed or voted on.
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