'Tighten your belt': Senators question UOG on tuition hikes, credit card use for massages

Senators on Monday questioned University of Guam's 5% tuition increase each semester starting in August, as well as the use of government credit cards for staff massages and other questionable purchases.

In a two-hour oversight hearing, university officials told senators that the tuition hikes were necessary to improve student services amid financial challenges, while also sharing campus successes such as a higher student graduation rate of 39%, compared with 27% in 2016.

Sen. Clynt Ridgell said it doesn't look good at all when UOG officials are asking for more money when there have been questionable spending using government credit cards, such as the purchase of a $1,366 electronic gaming device, $2,201 at the Ross Store in Tamuning and $450 on services at a massage spa.

UOG director of integrated marketing communications Jonas Macapinlac told senators that the procurement process flagged the $450 credit card use for spa massages and was eventually "deemed to be unallowable expense."

It was part of a staff development day expense involving nine staff members, Macapinlac said.

After that incident, UOG strengthened its procurement policy, requiring additional procurement training for personnel holding purchase cards, Macapinlac said.

Ridgell said UOG has to maintain procurement safeguards to avoid unnecessary expenses, no matter the amount involved.

"Tighten your belt as much as possible," he said.

UOG Vice President for Administration and Finance Randall Wiegand and Macapinlac also said that the $1,366.97 credit card purchase was not for a video game, but for a "high-powered video card" that will be used as part of a system that will closely monitor the growth of plant species.

The video card purchase came with games already installed in the system. They're bundled together, he said.

"The games are not in use. The purpose of the purchase was for video cards," Macapinlac said. The vendor invoice, he said, showed that the cost of the games, $59.99, was subtracted from the total amount and is "free and came with the card."

They said the $2,201 purchases at Ross using university credit card was for furniture and rugs needed to outfit two areas in the RFK Library, including a room for nursing mothers and another for faculty meetings.

Macapinlac said these went through proper procurement process. Not all funds used to pay off credit card purchases, he said, come from general fund appropriations. Money also comes from other sources of revenue that UOG generates.

Financial challenges

Sen. Joe San Agustin, appropriations committee chair, reminded university officials that current senators made sure that UOG will now get its full allotments after struggling for the past year from not getting the full amount that lawmakers appropriated under budget laws.

San Agustin, at the same time, said the governor's proposal shows a $3 million decrease in UOG's 2021 budget compared with 2020.

University President Thomas W. Krise and other officials told senators that each 5% increase will generate roughly $1 million.

Krise said that will "go directly to critical student services," such as hiring professional academic advisers for each university school or college to further grow student retention and graduation rates.

"Most institutions struggle with this balance between professional advising and faculty advising, so this plan is meant to try to create a hybrid to help with the accuracy of the advising while retaining the ability for mentorship," Krise said.

From $210 to $221

UOG tuition will increase by 5%, from $210 to $221 per credit hour in August through December 2020, Krise told senators. This is for resident undergraduate students.

For a resident undergraduate student taking 12 credit hours, the increased total tuition cost per semester is $132. Non-resident graduate and undergraduate students' tuition will also increase by 5%.

Depending on the budget, UOG may implement a second tuition increase as authorized in the Board of Regents' resolution, Krise said.

In October, the UOG Board of Regents approved a gradual increase in tuition of 5% every semester, until a total increase of 30% is reached.

"Ideally, we would like to keep tuition as low as possible for our students," Krise said. "We are the second most affordable land grant university in the country after Wyoming. We'd like to stay in that position."

University officials said the campus continues to encourage and help students with financial aid and scholarships.

Sen. Therese Terlaje and other senators asked whether raising tuition is the only way to beef up academic advising programs.

"We are seriously underspending what it requires to do a first-class job and so we have been trying to make up for the decline in appropriations as well as $12 million in lost allotment, that completely depleted our reserves...deferred maintenance, our equipment is failing now in rapid succession," Krise said.

Higher education committee chair Sen. Amanda Shelton and other senators also heard from university officials about the five-year strategic plan, capital improvement projects, campus safety and security, and updating policies to prevent sexual assaults and addressing sexual misconduct.

Krise said UOG went from having $8.8 million in federal research funding two years ago, which he said is a remarkably high number, to now having $17.4 million in federal research grants.

Reporter Haidee Eugenio Gilbert covers Guam's Catholic church issues, government, business and more. Follow her on Twitter @haidee_eugenio.

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