Holiday closure would
help save energy costs
BY KAREN MACK
UCLA Today Staff
Chancellor Albert Carnesale last week announced plans to close
the UCLA campus from Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2003, through Thursday,
Jan. 1, 2004, in order to save on energy expenditures. With the
exception of the UCLA hospital system and other facilities authorized
to remain open for essential services, buildings would be closed
for the entire nine-day period.
The first campuswide holiday closure in UCLA’s history is
intended “to reduce energy costs in a time of tightening budgets
and high energy prices,” Carnesale wrote in a campuswide e-mail
to faculty and staff. Despite implementing a variety of energy-saving
measures, the university still faces a projected annual deficit
of $2.5 million in its purchased utilities budget.
With energy prices at historically high levels, the cost of natural
gas and electricity now significantly exceeds the amount of state
funding UCLA receives for purchased utilities — primarily
natural gas to run the central Cogeneration Plant. According to
Jack Powazek, assistant vice chancellor for general services, the
unit price of natural gas has increased by 67% since 1999-2000,
but state allocations have not kept pace.
During the nine-day span, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning
(HVAC) systems would be shut down in buildings that do not house
research laboratories or other areas requiring extensive temperature
control. Facilities Management would work with building coordinators
to ensure that all computer server rooms would continue to be air-conditioned.
“The holiday closure would save more than $200,000 due to
the ability to turn off HVAC systems in more than 30 buildings across
the campus,” Powazek said. Authorized keyholders would be
able to enter the affected buildings as necessary during the closure,
he noted.
The closure period includes three weekdays that are not paid university
holidays — Dec. 26, Dec. 29 and Dec. 30. Consequently, staff
employees and those academic employees who accrue vacation leave
would have three options, which may be used separately or in combination,
for taking off those days:
- Paid vacation time. For this period only, employees with insufficient
vacation credits may use vacation time in advance of accrual.
Probationary employees may use vacation time prior to attaining
regular-employee status.
- Compensatory time off. If available, compensatory time off
may be used, subject to supervisory approval and in accordance
with applicable university policies and labor agreements.
- Leave of absence without pay.
Questions about benefits during leave, or related matters, may
be directed to Campus Human Resources at (310) 794-0877 or School
of Medicine HR at (310) 794-0683. The proposal will be finalized,
at Carnesale’s discretion, after the campus community has
had an opportunity to review and comment.
Although a first for the campus overall, the proposed holiday
closure follows successful precedents set by several UCLA units,
including the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.
In addition, Carnesale noted, “similar practices have been
followed for years at many other universities, including a number
of UC campuses.”
The holiday closure is among a range of proposals being developed
by faculty and administrators in the Energy Conservation Task Group,
established last summer to recommend ways to reduce campus energy
costs. The task group will present its full report to Carnesale
in early 2004.
These efforts supplement UCLA’s ongoing energy-conservation
activities; recent examples include construction of the Thermal
Energy Facility and the campus re-lamping program. |
