KU News Release

Jan. 24, 2007
Contact: Lynn Bretz, University Communications, (785) 864-7100.

KU provost testifies before Senate Higher Education Task Force

LAWRENCE — The following is the text of the testimony given by University of Kansas Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Richard Lariviere to the Senate Higher Education Task Force today.

Sen. Schodorf and members of the Senate Higher Education Task Force, KU thanks you for the opportunity to engage in a discussion with you regarding how KU addresses its $284 million maintenance backlog and the daily challenge we address in practicing triage to keep the campuses functional.

The chancellor, Dr. Atkinson and myself appreciate the time and effort that you have invested in drilling down on the deferred maintenance issues. It isn’t the kind of sexy, attractive topic that gets headlines, but it is an essential topic for the fulfillment of our obligation to Kansas.

As provost and executive vice chancellor of the Lawrence campus, I have responsibility in providing students, faculty and staff an environment that is safe and encourages learning. Our goal is to have buildings that meet or exceed current safety codes and provide access to all.

What makes buildings safe and classrooms suitable for learning are heating, cooling, electricity, Internet and telephone connections. All these elements are provided to campus buildings through a network of utility tunnels crisscrossing the Lawrence campus.

Our priority deferred maintenance challenge is the utility tunnels. Some of the tunnels were hand dug by first- and second-generation Kansans more than 100 years ago. We rely upon these century-old tunnels daily to deliver heat, power and communications to campus. Tunnels aren’t flashy, attractive projects. They are out of sight all together — but they are important. The 100-year-old brick-lined tunnels are bowing in from soil and water pressure. Even newer tunnels with steel liners are succumbing to corrosion.

Utility tunnels fall into the infrastructure category of “out of sight and out of mind.” But I can assure it is not out of my mind or the chancellor’s, and if you would like to come over one afternoon, I’d love to arrange a tour of the tunnels for you and your colleagues.

Seeing for yourself, you would understand our concerns of the catastrophe we would have on the Lawrence campus if a tunnel caved in, severing heat, power, Internet and telephone connections to a group of our education buildings.

A cave-in would force KU to contemplate a range of options in this event, including delaying or canceling classes as well as the costs of providing temporary electrical generation, heat and Internet connections, in addition to repairing the damaged tunnels. Repairing these tunnels would cost $8 million.

We would like to set aside some of our annual maintenance funds for the $8 million needed to repair and harden our utility tunnels. However, we can’t get ahead of the repair curve to do so. We practice infrastructure triage everyday. We have $1.5 billion in building assets but only $5.9 million for repairs. We must fix those problems that demand emergency repairs immediately at the expense of those projects which normal maintenance would justify replacement or repair.

Consider this fall semester at KU, here is what our team faced in keeping up with emergency repairs versus planned maintenance.

— A 33-year-old 750-kilowatt transformer malfunctioned in Wescoe Hall on Sept. 15, 2006. KU had to rent an industrial diesel generator to supply power while waiting for the new transformer. Cost to KU: $113,735 plus the cost of fuel for a temporary generator.

— A more than 20-year-old 12,470-volt power line providing electricity to Nichols Hall failed. Cost to KU: $157,997 to replace the power line plus the cost of fuel for a temporary generator.

— The chiller cooling Green Hall (constructed in 1977) failed. It has been rebuilt four times. It must be replaced. Cost to KU: $150,000.

While the utility tunnels are our No. 1 priority because of their linkage to all education buildings, we have serious problems in buildings like Malott Hall, which houses our chemistry department and KU’s pharmacy school. Malott Hall opened in 1954 and it looks, feels and smells like 1954 in Malott Hall.

Malott Hall is filled with deferred repairs that impact faculty and students. A chemistry lecture hall has intermittent leaks and missing ceiling tiles. The hallways in Malott still have the original floor and in some places have worn away to the sub floor. A 53-year-old building also needs new heating and cooling systems. In 1954, heating and cooling systems were not designed to service students, faculty, as well as heat created by computers and electrical lab equipment.

In fiscal year 2006, KU expended $700,000 in student tuition on deferred maintenance. These funds — intended to support learning and teaching — were instead directed to replacing some of the 1950’s fume hoods in Malott Hall. Outdated fume hoods are not safe for chemistry students to utilize in lab experiments. Without safe fume hoods, students cannot conduct experiments, which are vital to learning about chemistry.

The Lawrence campus is not alone in maintenance dilemmas. Our colleagues at the medical center campus face identical issues. Ed Phillips, vice chancellor for administration at the medical center, is also present and has first hand experience with the “wet” kind of deferred maintenance.

Over Father’s Day weekend 2004, a corroded water pipe in Murphy Hall no longer could hold back the water pressure it carried and sprung a leak. Not a little leak, but a $1 million leak.

Who paid? The medical center paid for the cleanup, repairs and renovation out of its operating funds as well as some private funds. Using a state educational funds for repairs puts pressure on the medical center’s budget devoted to educating doctors and nurses.

Like the crumbling utility tunnels in Lawrence, the medical center also has urgent and unmet maintenance needs at the Applegate Energy Center. The utilities distributed throughout the University of Kansas Medical Center campus support the health care, clinical, research, academic and administrative functions of the campus. Without reliable utility systems the life safety of the patients, students, staff and the public are compromised and the overall quality of the academic and educational services provided would be reduced. Additionally, the reliability of utility systems may have an impact on the rating assigned by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

The electrical, heating and cooling distribution services at Applegate were placed in service in 1975. The condition of distribution and generation equipment at the center are aging and in questionable condition. Ed has brought some examples of how infrastructure triage has impacted the med center campus as well.

We take annual state maintenance funding every year and try to be innovative in supplementing those dollars with more funds to maintain a safe learning environment. However, our internal efforts can never supplement what is needed annually. We have two examples of finding additional funds for repairing buildings.

Several years ago, KU contracted to undertake energy conservation projects. The dollars saved on energy consumption are being used to fund critical deferred maintenance projects such as the replacement of the main electrical switch serving the entire KUMC campus. Both campuses have taken advantage of the energy performance contracting process, but we have reached the limit of feasible projects. We’ve stretched this program as far as we can.

Last year, the Legislature approved and the governor signed a law that allows interest on tuition payment to be retained by KU for deferred maintenance. The governor’s FY08 allocates $1,756,000 in this interest for maintenance and repairs at KU. Every little bit helps, but we just cannot keep up with the planned and emergency repairs, especially when an unforeseen major catastrophe looms over our campuses.

Let me assure you that KU appreciates the time and effort this task force, the Legislature and governor have invested into deferred maintenance. We stand ready to assist you in answering questions or providing further information needed for developing comprehensive legislative package to alleviate our backlog while providing a stream of funding for planned maintenance.

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