Minutes of the Budget Policy Committee November 19, 2007

Present: Mary Allen, Jeff Campbell, Drew Digby, Steve Downing, Pam Enrici, Joan Erickson, Greg Fox, John Hamlin, Kit Hautamaki, Jim Klueg, Howard Mooers, Amy Versnik Nowak, Harry Zabrocki
Excused: Julie Ernst, Guiha Fei, Randy Hyman, Stacy Jorgenson, Ben Kirk, Jerry Lin, Shee Wong

1. Approval of October 15, 2007 Meeting Minutes
The minutes were approved as written.

2. Auxiliary Services Report, Jeff Romano and Joe Michela

Bookstore Update
Jeff Romano gave an update on the organizational structure of the bookstore within the Auxiliary Services unit. The bookstore is not funded by fees or university funds, so a profit structure provides revenue for improving services and equipment. They are responsible for an annual payment of $340,000 per year loan payment on their space in Kirby Plaza and pay their own utilities and overhead costs. 2006 was a financially successful year for the bookstore, partially due to increasing enrollment and partially due to the ability to accept Ucard charges for bookstore purchases. “Course materials” including cd-roms, workbooks, and study guides bundled with traditional text books have replaced stand-alone texts, increasing costs for students. Digital media has replaced text books in some classes and on average costs 40% less than the new text price, but digital media has no resale value for the student. The Student Association has been working hard on an initiative to increase the affordability of class materials, focusing on text books and less on digital materials.
As part of the SA initiative, faculty are being encouraged to use the same text book for more than one semester and to coordinate texts for different sections of the same class. The bookstore also encourages faculty to choose their texts early to avoid returning books to a wholesaler that can be used later at UMD. As storage space at the bookstore is very limited, unused books cannot he held for a period of time to determine if they are needed for future classes at UMD.
UMD currently works with 6 wholesale book companies and the wholesaler sets the prices for books sold back to the store that can’t be used at UMD. UMD has an aggressive buy-back program and the last buyback returned $935,000 to the students. Of those books bought back from students, 60% stayed at UMD and the remainder went back to the wholesale market. The bookstore currently has a 25% mark up and a 24% expense margin, leaving profit at approximately 1% on text books. Approximately 2% of all merchandise cost is for shipping.
Kirby Plaza was remodeled three years ago and the Street Level store (Kirby Drive) is successful and continues to do well. Merchandise includes clothing, food, art supplies and gifts. The store is open 7 days a week including evening hours. The stores employ 38 of the nearly 300 students employed by Auxiliary Services.

Food Service Update
The Dining Center business is good but less than some years due to a decrease in housing occupants. Expansion of the coffee shop is going well and the food court and Center Court Grill also remain busy. The Taste of Italia menu has expanded for this year. The noon hour is very busy in all food service areas and seating at that time is sparse. The big screen tv in the food court has been a big draw on the weekends and evenings.
Paper products are being used whenever possible- paper plates, napkins, etc. Foam containers are only used when necessary for safety. The food court has also switched to biodegradable utensils. In 2008, most food items will carry nutritional labels or will have nutritional information posted in the service area.
Food Service loses about 1200 trays each year from the food court. Replacement cost is approximately $3 each and patrons returning trays to the food court after use keeps costs down.

Transportation/Parking Update
Campus is served by both the DTA and Jefferson Lines. Jefferson Lines provide service to the Twin Cities and beyond (Greyhound connection). UMD is the number one hub in the Jefferson Lines system for bus ridership and additional buses have been added to accommodate the number of riders coming from UMD. Route information and tickets are available in the Street Level store.
The DTA provided UMD passengers with 50,000 rides in September 2007. Campus currently has 235 buses coming through campus every day, not including the buses that serve Campus Park and Boulder Ridge.
The proposed Civil Engineering building will eliminate some parking spaces in Lot G, both for the construction phase and the permanent building placement. The exact number of lost spaces has yet to be determined.
All gold parking permits have been sold and there are still approximately 130 empty spaces per day in Lot A. Lot G (pay lot) holds 477 cars and has an average of 600 cars using it per day. Designated reserve spaces have been greatly reduced since the gold lots were established. There are no large project plans pending for parking lots on campus.
There is currently no waiting list for Housing parking permits. Housing lots currently have unused space which provides overflow for other lots.

Housing Update
Housing is currently 98% full with a few spaces open for females. No hotels were used this fall. 90% of the incoming freshman class lives on campus, which is high compared to other years. Housing residents are fairly evenly distributed between residence halls and apartments. UMD rates are $1000+ less than the Twin Cities campus and on par with Boulder Ridge and Campus Park. Fiscally, the Housing office does adequately. UMD Housing rates include laundry costs and the vendor supplying laundry appliances is working with Auxiliary Services to repair and upgrade the appliances as needed.
One issue on the Housing horizon is the replacement of the Stadium Apartments, which are approved by the code office as currently configured for occupancy until 2010. There are 312 beds in that complex and a decision needs to be made how to replace those beds. It costs more than one million dollars to demolish and remove the debris from each of the three buildings in addition to the actual replacement costs. One issue at hand is food service- the Dining Center is operating at full capacity and if Stadiums are replaced with a residence hall building, an alternative meal arrangement may be needed as there is no expansion room for the Dining Center.

3. Closing remarks- Adjourn

Please note-
VP Pfutzenreuter will be attending our December committee meeting, which is scheduled for Monday, December 3, 2007 from 1:30 to 3:00 pm in the Administrative Conference Room (DAdB 520).

Submitted by Cheryl Anderson