Problems plague division

The Division of Residential Programs and Services has been losing money and cutting services for years. The obstacles RPS has encountered to meet its budget every year are varied and complex, but by many accounts, poor budgeting and sloppy accounting lie at the root of the problem. \n"RPS is structured horribly; it's so unorganized," junior Johnathan Goo said. Goo is the Residence Halls Association vice president of student affairs.\nRPS runs the food courts, dining halls and convenience stores. It is an auxiliary organization that receives no funding from the University or state, said Robert Woodling, RPS director of financial management. It draws all its funds from students' room rates and meal plans. \nRHA is the student government for students living in on-campus housing. RHA operates the center stores, which accept Campus Access points, checks and cash. RPS convenience stores accept meal points. \nA contributing factor to the financial headaches at RPS has been keeping track of the inventory. Joan Hagen, a cost and tax analyst at Financial Management Services, said RPS keeps track of the transactions that take place in the food courts. When RPS runs a report containing these transactions, the report only lists the total number of meal points spent in each transaction and what items were purchased. \n"What RPS does not do is monitor the price for which each item is sold," Goo said.\nTheir procedure relies on the items in the food court being accurately priced when sold by the often untrained and inexperienced cashiers, said Ken Grinstead, a part-time cashier. \nA survey conducted by the Visionary Committee, composed of RPS and RHA members, reported that the three biggest problems in RPS are "lack of training, lack of communication and lack of an evaluation process for employees," Goo said. \n"There's no training for students and no evaluation process to monitor them," Grinstead said. \nArguably, the accounting process is one factor affecting the financial situation at RPS. \n"Two years ago, the budget overestimated the number of students who would be living in the dorms by 300 people," Woodling said. \nHe said this resulted in a $2.3 million loss in the budget. \nAnother loss at the end of last semester totaling $760,000 came to RHA's attention. A routine check on inventory should have been done every six months comparing stock in the food courts to the numbers from the supplier, Woodling said. Accounting at RPS did not accurately adjust its books when matching the inventory in the food courts with their records for more than 18 months, he said. To remedy the problem, Woodling said RPS raised prices. \nBut before the products can get to the shelves, RPS must speculate on how much inventory is needed. It uses the figures from previous years to determine the budget for the coming year.\nBut he said the budget usually varies from the actual figures that arise in a fiscal year.\nThe RPS budget is successful when the actual expenses encountered by RPS in a fiscal year allow it to pay its expenses, pay its employees and have money left over to deposit in a reserve fund. These reserves are set aside for major projects and maintenance within the residence halls and dining facilities. \n"Our budget is configured two years in advance; we want to budget enough of a margin for reserves," Woodling said. \nHe said RPS loses money if the budget is miscalculated. \nPatrick Connor, director of RPS, said that for the last two or three years, RPS has ended the fiscal year with a loss. \nA few years ago, the dining facilities lost money when they switched from meals to meal points. They lost again when meal points were accepted without limit in the Indiana Memorial Union and Main Library, said senior Chris Boudi, chairman of the RHA Meal Plan Committee.\nWoodling said RPS likes to take no more than 40 percent of the money spent by students on meal plans to cover the cost of sales or food. The other 60 percent covers the overhead costs of RPS -- such as administrative salaries, building depreciation and utilities. \nProblems with budgeting contribute to high prices of products available on meal points.\nThe high prices of products available at convenience stores have also been a student concern. Complaints regarding prices and quality of the food have been "adamantly voiced by the students," said senior Jason Dudich, RHA president.\nAt the Wilkie convenience store run by RPS, the price of a 10.9-ounce box of Kelloggs Corn Pops is $4.99; at the Mr. D's on College Mall Road, a 15-ounce box of Pops is $3.79. An individual container of Dannon yogurt at Wilkie sells for $1.29, while Mr. D's offers the same product for 89 cents.\n"Because so few people are actually buying things like batteries and laundry detergent, the prices are higher than places like Wal-Mart that buy in bulk," Boudi said. \nIndividual orders of convenience stores are compiled and sent as one order to distributors. IU also has contracts with companies such as Coca-Cola, which allows the company the right to name its price for the drinks it offers students. Boudi said because these products are so expensive and generate low revenue, RPS is considering the removal of costly nonfood items such as laundry detergent from the convenience stores.\n"RPS raises prices while cutting services every year," Goo said. "Any organization that budgets that badly would not be working"