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Credit Card Charges of the Administrative Brigade
(with apologies to Lord Alfred Tennyson)
by Linda Rouillard, UT-AAUP Executive Board
The University of Toledo (UT) provides President Jacobs and UT administrators with UT credit cards known as P-Cards. The UT-AAUP is reviewing the P-Cards of UT administrators, their assistants and their secretaries. The following are questions raised about specific expenses charged to UT by the Jacobs Administration.
1. Why has a UT administrator paid rent for two apartments in Ypsilanti, MI on a P- Card in the amounts of $1699/mo. from September 2009 through at least February 2011 for a total of $61,164? In addition, the P-Card for this same person during the same period has Time Warner Cable charges totaling $866.98 and $845.79.
2. Why does a UT administrator need to use a UT P-Card to make a $539.09 purchase at Jos. A. Bank of Toledo?
3. Why has a UT administrator charged a Golfweek magazine subscription in the amount of $59.40 to a UT P-Card?
4. Why did an administrator charge 3 cinema tickets to his P-Card, including a ticket for a member of the Board of Trustees?
5. How much money does UT spend on sporting events ostensibly for "Stewardship and Community Cultivation", such as Walleye tickets or Mud Hens tickets?
6. How much does an administrative meeting cost if it takes place in
a) a UT conference room or office?
b) at J. Alexander's?
c) at Mancy's Steakhouse?
Tracking the expense accounts of Jacobs' administrators is not straight forward. Many expenses are buried in P-Cards of assistants or secretaries. Some are paid out of departmental budgets or from special funds including the UT Foundation. For example, UT purchases season tickets to the Detroit Tigers baseball games, but these are a direct purchase by a UT department and do not appear on a P-Card. However, the Walleye and Mud Hens tickets do appear on a P-Card.
At a time when UT employees are being terminated because of alleged budget problems and academic budgets are being reduced 10% or more, why do Jacobs' administrators continue to indulge themselves at the expense of UT and Ohio taxpayers. If the UT Board of Trustees and Governor Kasich are serious about cutting costs, let them look into the expense accounts of the Jacobs' administrators. UT administrators are being paid some of the highest salaries and bonuses by Ohio public universities, but the Jacobs Administration still generously use the UT credits cards. There will be future newsletters reporting more questionable expense account uses by the Jacobs administration.
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