Change our expense habits.

Colleges and students allow money to walk out the door by making uneducated decisions on managing the campus’ facilities. There are a number of ways to improve efficiency and save both parties money, but these items are normally the last items of concern for either party during a hectic semester. However, that lack of focus needs to change.

Articles by The Best Colleges Online and Time Magazine highlight a number of improvements that numerous colleges have made in order to save money. From saving money on electricity, water, storage, waste, and many other ideas, these colleges have been able to save thousands of dollars annually. You will find some of these ideas below:

“Cutting Phone Lines: At the University of Washington, they’re cutting their land lines. The school discovered that landlines just weren’t necessary for the communications department (an appropriate department for the cut, we think). Although they kept common area land lines as well as lines for staff, department faculty no longer have their own phones, saving about $1,100 each month, and eliminating the department’s biggest line item.” (Best Colleges Online, 2011).

“Going Trayless: Cafeteria trays lend a festive, institutional flair to school eateries, but many campuses are ditching them altogether and seeing a huge savings. Williams College has cut trays, and estimates a water savings of 14,000 gallons. And although food costs are rising, Rochester Institute of Technology has a 10% lower food bill, attributed to reduced food waste since eliminating trays. An added bonus of going trayless? Students are less likely to pack on the "freshman 15" once they have to choose food carefully instead of loading up” (Best Colleges Online, 2011).

“Retrofitting lighting: At Arizona State University, the school took on a major project to retrofit interior and exterior lighting, improving lighting quality and reducing the energy demand of the lighting fixtures. There were 10,214 fixtures retrofitted over six months and 300 acres. Although an involved undertaking, it proved to be useful. The effort saved more than 1 million kilowatt hours, with a savings of $100,000 each year for the school” (Best Colleges Online, 2011).

“Rhodes hires students for professional staff positions: College jobs are great for students, and can provide excellent experience that will serve them when it’s time to graduate and move out into the career field. Colleges can also benefit from student work, and Rhodes College has created a program that serves both student and college by hiring students to work in professional staff positions. In addition to improving the resumes of the 25 students in staff positions, the college has saved $725,000 per year by hiring them” (Best Colleges Online, 2011).

“Dirty windows, dingy sidewalks: Power washing eats up a huge amount of money at Pitzer College. The college used to power wash its sidewalks and windows two times a year, but now does it just once, saving the college $80,000 annually. We’re betting that no one even picked up on the difference of a little bit more dirt on the sidewalks, but $80,000 is certainly worth noticing” (Best Colleges Online, 2011).

“Bryn Mawr College: Saved $900 when its women's swim team held a virtual meet against nearby Dickinson; each team's swimmers raced in their home pool, and then they compared times to declare winners” (Yan, 2009).

“Rochester Institute of Technology: Netted $10,000 by going digital, moving some athletics publications online” (Yan, 2009).

Considering that these steps are small in many ways, yet they add up in the long run. So much so, that tuition costs and other expenses, which are budgeted to these areas, could be used in more constructive means. Sometimes it takes a collective action to make a dent in the cost disease.


References:

Best Colleges Online. (2011). 20 innovative ways colleges are saving money. Retrieved from, http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2011/08/09/20-innovative-ways-colleges-are-saving-money/

Yan, S. (2009). Colleges find creative ways to cut back. Time Magazine. Retrieved from, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921613,00.html