In October, a lecture from controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders at a Columbia University College Republicans event left to face campus criticism—and a mysterious charge from Columbia University Facilities.
According to CUCR Director of Finances Jonathan Kaiser, CC ’10, the group was “never quoted anything, and then a charge for $550 appeared on our account one day without notice.”
This sort of discrepancy between expected fees and actual costs is an issue the Student Governing Board has been attempting to address this semester.
“The SGB has met with Facilities about the issue of student groups being overcharged, and they [Facilities] explained how the process is supposed to work and gave us guides to prices,” Devora Aharon, CC ‘10 and SGB chair, said.
But Aharon said that some groups are hesitant to come forward with questionable charges or don’t know to report the problem to SGB.
“It was difficult to question them [Facilities] about situations where there may have been unfair charges. … Therefore, we’re asking our groups to report to us specific instances where their Facilities charge seemed unexplained or too high,” she said.
University spokesperson Robert Hornsby said in an email that Facilities cannot be blamed for unexpected fees.
“The charges to student groups for event support are contingent upon the scope and nature of the event,” he said.
According to Hornsby, University departments that provide services, such as equipment and furniture rentals, routinely provide advance notice of charges. But at times, he said, “adjustments may be necessary to ensure that certain events are produced as planned, and with appropriate regard for the safety of the speaker(s), guests and audience, which may account for unforeseen charges.”
In response to the Republicans’ unanticipated bill from the event in October, Hornsby stated that costs have been addressed.
“Certain high profile events, like the lecture by Geert Wilders, require venues to accommodate the audience and require additional security precautions,” he said. There was an additional room fee for the event that has been waived for CUCR.
SGB secretary Beezly Kiernan, CC ‘11, said that there are two main sources of these misunderstandings. Facilities tend not to give quotes for labors charges, he said. Kiernan noted that they also sometimes seem to charge for services that should be free under the Student Government Facilities Fund Agreement, which is a front-end payment to cover student group Facilities expenses for events outside Lerner Hall. The fund covers custodial, ground, labor, carpentry, and electrical and plumbing assistance.
The Hindu Students Organization also ran into difficulties when it came time to plan their Navaratri Dinner at Earl Hall in October.
Rithu Ramachandran, CC ’12, treasurer for HSO and an SGB representative, said she had called Earl Hall and Facilities to ask how much the event would cost, but that Facilities refused to give her a ball park estimate because they said they could not predict labor costs.
She and other members of HSO stayed late to clean up crumbs from the ground and offered to vacuum to minimize the time it would take to clean the room, Ramanchandran said. When she called Facilities to ask about charges, they said they would need weeks to calculate the costs.
A month later HSO was billed over $100 for labor, a charge Kiernan said should have been covered by the Facilities Fund.
“I didn’t know whether that was a problem or not,” Ramanchandran said, adding that it took so much time to contact Facilities to inquire about it, HSO just dropped the issue.
“I just assumed it’s a sacrifice we’ll have to make,” she said. “It would have been a lot more helpful if Facilities had been up-front earlier on and broken down those charges for us.”
Kiernan said that SGB will continue dialogues with Facilities to help student groups, like HSO, recoup those charges and facilitate communication in the future.
He said groups may also encounter charges that, according to the Facilities Fund Agreement, should be free, including labor and waste management fees.
“Both HSO and SGB were charged for labor by Facilities. We intend to challenge those costs and figure out exactly what student groups are being charged for,” he said.
SGB plans to meet with Facilities soon to discuss the discrepancies. Aharon explained that the board is seeking more reports from groups who have experienced confusing charges before they approach Facilities.
“Our goal is to show Facilities the expenses and find out exactly why the group was charged that way, and determine if there were issues involved in the charge. Once we know what the problems are, we can try to tackle them,” she said.
Aharon added: “We hope that the increased transparency we’re seeking from Facilities can be achieved through more open communication between students and Facilities, and we’re working to facilitate that through this initiative.”
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