Maintenance backlogged, low funding trends at UI
The University of Idaho has well over $220 million in backlogged maintenance costs for campus buildings, said Brian Johnson, assistant vice president of Facilities Services.
“That’s scary,” said Faculty Senate Secretary Donald Crowley in response to the figure.
Johnson agreed and said there is an alarming increase in the amount of facility backlog at UI, citing a report by Sightlines, a consulting firm hired to analyze facility funding at UI. Sightlines spent two years analyzing UI’s facilities and concluded its report in 2013.
“The big building issues are very easy to put off, and it doesn’t have to be resolved tonight, the place isn’t going to crash down on us tomorrow,” Johnson said at Faculty Senate Tuesday. “And yet, kind of from a big picture scope, we’re digging a grave or a hole that we are never going to get out of.”
According to the report, from 2007 to 2012 UI spent an average of 65 percent of what was needed to sustain facilities in their original functions. In the same time period, peer institutions spent above the minimum amount required to sustain their facilities, with an average of 111 percent of funding. According to the report, peer institutions invested, on average, $2.5 million more than UI did annually to address backlogged maintenance.
As a result, Johnson said UI general education facilities have seen a 29 percent increase in facility backlog while peer institutions have only experienced a 9 percent increase from 2007 to 2012.
“It’s rough, not only for our peers, but quite substantially for us in (general education) facilities,” Johnson said.
Johnson said most of the annual facility funding comes from the state through the Permanent Building Fund, which typically gives UI $2-3 million on an annual basis.
He said the facilities department experienced an increase in funding over the past six years due to one-time funding opportunities and a state surplus in 2007-2008. Some years, more than $10 million was spent on general education facilities, but the regular budget is around half, Johnson said.
“Our normal investment rate is probably around the order of that $5 million a year at best — sad to say,” Johnson said.
Although the report showed funding shortfalls at UI, it also showed that limited funds are being spent in the right places, often on long-term needs, such as replacing roofs or HVAC systems, Johnson said.
“It might not be pretty or sexy, and it isn’t historically necessarily real attractive outcomes, but they are functional and useful and keep research active and instruction ongoing on campus,” Johnson said.
Johnson also laid out a list of the university’s construction and renovation priorities. He said the Integrated Research and Innovation Center was the top priority at UI, because of the strong need for a modern science facility on campus.
Also on the priorities list, improvements to the main floor of the UI Library, something Johnson said could use a facelift with a new layout and fresh upholstery.
Despite the backlog, Johnson encouraged faculty members to contact Facilities Services if something is broken to notify facilities of any surplus items they want removed.
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]