Oregon daily emerald., January 10, 1978, Image 1

Vol. 79, No. 75
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Tuesday, January 10, 1978
State returns $94,000 to University
By CAROLYN BEAVER
Of the Emerald
For the first time, interest earned on stu
dent deposits and agency account bal
ances will be returned to state colleges and
universities, the University is scheduled to
receive approximately $94,000.
The Oregon State System of Higher
Education decided in October to distribute
the interest to each state institution based
on the amount invested.
The administration delegated Molly De
vlin, ASUO vice-president and Ralph Sun
derland, University Management and
Budget director, to decide where the money
should go. Sutherland and Devlin decided
the majority would go to ease the EMU’s
deficit and cash-flow problems.
They appropriated $89,000 to the EMU
and $5,000 to the Incidental Fee
Committee’s (IFC) emergency reserve ac
count. Devlin says every year the EMU op
erates with a deficit. The appropriation
"should be enough push to allow the EMU
to operate in the black.”
Traditionally, the interest money from all
schools is pooled and credited to Oregon’s
general treasury fund. The money is ac
crued interest on tuition deposits, dormitory
deposits, student deposits and school or
ganization deposits.
Actually, the $94,OCX) is interest from two
fiscal years. In the 1976-77 fiscal year, the
University’s total interest was $47,029. The
estimated interest for 1977-78 is $47,000.
Should the actual amount be lower, the
EMU will not receive the full $89,000.
In the future, the interest money “will be
applied to the inflationary impact on the
IFC,” says Devlin. The money given to the
IFC will enable them to keep their fee at $31
for the next few years.' ‘With every other fee
constantly going up, it’s nice to be able to
keep it at the same level,” says Devlin.
Devlin says the funds went to the EMU
instead of to students this year be
cause the EMU’s annual deficit has to be
paid by student funds at some time and
“hopefully this will be a big enough push so
that in future years the EMU will be able to
operate without a deficit.’’
Other state schools will receive various
amounts of money. For the 1976-77 fiscal
year, Oregon State University interest will
be $48,000, Portland State will be $13,980
and Southern Oregon State will be $8,961.
Each school will receive approximately the
same amount for the 77-78 fiscal year. The
total 76-77 interest is $139,267, divided be
tween 10 universities, colleges and institu
tions.
The Oregon drought was
officially over with
December's record rains,
but offshore fronts persist in
bringing more. This
motorist braved over a foot
of water at 24th and Harris
Streets, while drivers of
large U.S.-made autos
waited in line to bypass the
flood. Dick Meier of the Na
tional Weather Service re
ports that some daily rain
falls in late December were
300 percent of normal. With
the ground-saturation point
long since reached, the
overflow ends up on
Eugene’s pavement.
Photo by Steven Schor
A Volkswagen float to go, please
Administrator criticizes HEW audit
By RICHARD SEVEN
Of the Emerald
“The requirements attached to federal
grants cause the University a nightmare of
petty management details,” says Ray
Hawk, vice-president for administration and
finance.
Hawk, responding to the HEW
department's $160,000 fine against the
University because of faulty bookkeeping
and unauthorized transfers of funds, says
the problem was not one of non
compliance, but rather perceived pro
cedural errors in carrying out the federally
funded work.
“People are different," Hawk says.
“Some are better bookkeepers than others.
There just can t be a set scheme of pro
cedural regulations because of the many
deviations The important question is — did
we fulfill the mission they asked of us?"
Hawk says the latest wave of federal reg
ulations require a strict accountability of all
work connected with federal grants.
“The federal regulations are forcing us to
push a timedock." Hawk says. “We are
required to keep careful track of the amount
of time we spend on federal work as op
posed to other work. The same goes for the
helpers in a federal project. This means
less time and money can be put into what
the grants require and more money is put
into filling out reports and keeping track of
hours."
Hawk disagrees with the “spot check"
system used by the HEW auditors in deter
mining the indirect cost of a project.
The auditors took a sample of time cards
from University employees working on fed
eral grant projects for the month of Feb
ruary. Upon finding a discrepancy between
the employee time caros and the supervisor
time sheets, the auditors then multiplied the
difference with the 48 months since the last
time they had checked up on the process.
“This kind of spot checking represents a
horror of accountability," says Hawk. "It’s
based on an assumption if February wasn’t
a good month, then the rest of the months
also had to be bad. This type of scientific
polling can become a dangerous money
game.”
The auditors originally cited the Univer
sity on 56 cases of sample errors in book
keeping for the programs, totaling about $2
million. However, after some negotiating
in Maryland with the National Institute of
Health, the University fine was decreased
to $160,000 on six charges.
Hawk says University officials still didn’t
agree with the fine, but decided to pay the
settlement anyway.
"When you’re talking about federal funds
totaling about 16 or 18 million dollars, you
see they hold all the cards because they're
doing the dealing,” Hawk says. "They can
say, Well, we ll just hold this 2 or 3 million
dollars in grants until this mess is cleared up
and there isn’t much you can do.”
Hawk also reveals that much of the fed
eral grant money provides for research as
sistance by graduate students. The loss of
these grants could severely hinder the
graduate school, he says.
The audit covered areas of payroll dis
tribution, technical report omission, cost
transfer and maintenance of federal
equipment. All six infractions were cited in
payroll infractions.
Don Howard, who administers research
grants for the Business Office, says a new
system is being developed to ensure
greater accuracy in reviewing employees
work time on federal projects. Instead of
having a supervisor estimate how many
hours of work an employee does in a
month, both the supervisor and the emp
loyee will now review the time worked.
in addition to the University, Oregon
State University, University of Washington,
University of California at Berkeley and 39
others have either been cited by the au
ditors or are currently being reviewed.