Update: UCLA is reducing the amount of student fees it plans to use to pay for the Pauley Pavilion upgrade, the Los Angeles Times reports. The university said it will not use $15 million in student fees for Pauley because the cost of the project came in lower than expected.
When UCLA officials first planned a $185 million upgrade of Pauley Pavilion, they expected the bulk of funding to come from donors – alumni and others eager to overhaul the aging home of the school's renowned basketball team.
But it didn't quite turn out that way. With economic realities dampening fundraising expectations, UCLA is now planning to using student fees that were levied for other purposes to fill the gap, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Flickr photo by BobT2
The university will tap $10 million in student fees that were set aside for seismic upgrades and $15 million in student fees that were supposed to go to maintenance on two specific student facilities to help pay for the project.
The move raises several questions: How can the university change the original purpose of student fees? Why spend money for seismic upgrades on Pauley Pavilion, when more than a dozen other buildings are known to be more dangerous in a quake?
The UC regents first approved the seismic-safety student fee at UCLA in 1988 – $39 per year to be used exclusively for seismic and other safety corrections to Kerckhoff Hall and Ackerman Union. Both buildings were rated "very poor" for seismic safety and were considered collapse risks in a big quake.
The idea was that UCLA could borrow the money to fix those buildings and use the revenue from the safety fee to pay the debt service. In 1992, the regents approved an increase in the fee level, to $113 per year.
As it turned out, the seismic-safety fee generated more revenue than the university needed to fund its debt service. As of 1999, the fee was bringing in more than $700,000 of extra revenue per year.
The regents decided in 1999 that the excess cash could be used to pay for "other needed life-safety improvements in student services facilities."
Fast forward to 2009, when the regents gave the thumbs-up to UCLA to use $10 million from this seismic-safety fund to help pay for renovations to Pauley.
Yet Pauley Pavilion is far from the worst earthquake risk on campus. I reported recently that UCLA has 18 structures in use that are rated "poor" for seismic safety. While none of these is considered a "student-services facility," many are highly trafficked by students. They include the School of Public Health, the School of Medicine and the Darling Biomedical Library. Pauley Pavilion, by contrast, is rated "fair."
Aside from the seismic-safety fee reserves, the university is also going to use $15 million from the Student Programs, Activities and Resources Center fee to help pay debt service on the Pauley project. That fee was "approved by a student referendum in 2000 to maintain two older campus buildings that house gyms and student centers," the LA Times reported.
Steve Olsen, UCLA's chief operating officer, acknowledged that the referendum approving the fee included nothing about Pauley Pavilion. But "it was always clearly understood that as the revenues grew, additional projects could be appropriately funded by those fees," he said.
Cindy Mosqueda, who was a UCLA sophomore in 2000 and a leader of the campaign for the fee, said there was no such understanding.
"We . . . thought we needed additional space and the asbestos out of the basement," said Mosqueda, now a PhD. candidate. "If we knew it would be used in the future for Pauley Pavilion, we wouldn't have worked so hard."
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block told the regents in 2009 that none of the $25 million in student fees could be used to address academic budget cuts, such as course eliminations, salary reductions and staff layoffs.
UCLA's experience with Pauley seems similar to what some in the UC Berkeley community fear will happen if the university can't raise enough money to pay debt service on its Student Athlete High Performance Center, now expected to cost $153 million. While university officials are confident they'll be able to generate needed funding, critics worry they will have to rescue the athletics program with university funds.
Update: UCLA issued the following response to the LA Times story and California Watch's blog post today:
Pauley Pavilion is a multi-purpose facility utilized for a wide variety of student activities, including commencement and intramural sports. After 45 years, its infrastructure needs a comprehensive upgrade; the renovation is much more than a cosmetic facelift for a basketball arena.
The assertion that revenue from two student fees is being used to replace fundraising shortfalls is false. The two student fees were established specifically to fund student facilities and programs and earthquake-safety upgrades. They cannot be used – and are not being used – to cover general operating expenses. It is appropriate that these fees be used to supplement far larger funding sources such as private gifts and long-term debt backed by ticket revenue.
Revenues from the seismic-safety fee can be used only for student-services facilities such as Pauley Pavilion. They cannot be applied toward buildings that fall outside that category, regardless of their seismic rating.
We’re disappointed that the Los Angeles Times article includes misinformed criticism from those who are not involved with the project and lack the facts. These misleading comments do a disservice to students by damaging our efforts to complete a project they deserve.
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