SLCC gasps at expected heating costs

Fuel and power costs on Salt Lake Community College's eight campuses are projected to skyrocket — the total for 2005-06 could exceed $3 million.

The pain is being felt throughout public higher education.

SLCC officials are predicting a 64 percent increase just in the cost of natural gas to heat their main campus on Redwood Road for the current school year.

"The dollar amounts are kind of staggering here — we know that we're going to be short dollars and we're going to have to make that up somewhere," said Bob Askerlund, SLCC director of facilities services.

Other schools are staring down huge increases and wondering if the 2006 Legislature will come through with extra funding.

"We're going to get on our knees and plead," said Pieter Van der Have, University of Utah assistant vice president for plant operations. "I'm optimistic the Legislature will be sympathetic."

That's because Van der Have and others think state lawmakers will understand that schools have no choice but to pay to keep classrooms warm, heat water and keep the lights on, that schools have taken steps to save money and that other budgets will suffer if state support doesn't follow the increased costs.

The U. is looking at a 70 percent increase — at least $1 million — over the past 12 months for natural gas.

The reason is that Questar is passing along increases in the price of natural gas to its customers, resulting in almost a $4 per decatherm (a unit of measuring usage) increase to $10.18 on SLCC's Redwood campus. The size of increases varies at different campuses. The cost of electricity on five of SLCC's campuses is also expected to increase, though only slightly.

Utah System of Higher Education officials asked the state last legislative session for more than $15 million extra for 2005-2006 to cover estimated fuel and power cost increases at nine public colleges and universities. The U. and Utah State University made up almost $13 million of that request.

USHE also wanted lawmakers to come up with another $12.9 million toward a shortage in state funding to cover increased electrical and natural gas costs dating back to 2000 and 2001.

Lawmakers gave public institutions $10 million.

"That's a great commitment from the Legislature," said Kevin Walthers, Utah System of Higher Education assistant commissioner for finance and facilities.

USHE's approach for the foreseeable future will be to compare expenditures from one year to the next and, if extra is needed, ask only for the difference and to forget the budget shortfalls of recent history.

The regents are in the process of drafting a budget request for the 2006 Legislature.

In the meantime, Walthers said colleges and universities continue efforts to save money on fuel and power, shutting down buildings and turning off lights when faculty and students aren't inside classrooms and offices. "We're trying to be good stewards," he said.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com