NEWS

UT official says Haslam outsourcing plan 'would be a disaster'

Adam Tamburin, and Dave Boucher
The Tennessean

A top official at the University of Tennessee has blasted Gov. Bill Haslam's proposal to outsource management of campus buildings, saying it would be a disastrous move for the state's flagship university.

A sweeping sexual assault lawsuit against the University of Tennessee will proceed, after a federal judge denied a motion by attorneys for the university to dismiss the case.

Dave Irvin, the associate vice chancellor for facilities management at UT's Knoxville campus, told students this week that the state's plan to privatize facilities management at colleges, prisons and state parks was a "one-size-fits-all" approach that wouldn't meet the unique needs of his campus.

“It would be a disaster for this campus. It would be a disaster for our students," Irvin said during an interview with the students, who were writing a column for The Daily Beacon, UT's student newspaper. Those students — Ben Bergman, Hayley Brundige, Patrick McKenzie and Sawyer Smith — shared a recording of the interview with The Tennessean.

A spokeswoman with the Haslam administration said information provided by The Tennessean from Irvin's interview was either subjective or inaccurate, adding the administration has yet to make a decision on outsourcing. Asked repeatedly to note which parts were inaccurate, Michelle Martin of the Office of Customer Focused Government provided few details.

"We continue to work with UT and other stakeholders on this issue. The state’s facilities management project team is in the process of finalizing its business justification, and we expect to have that completed by the end of February," Martin said in an emailed statement.

Irvin said the plan could weaken services in residence halls, research facilities and Neyland Stadium, home of the Volunteer football team. Irvin said the university would have to pay extra fees for a number of campus services, including football games and athletics, special events, move-in days and many sustainability projects. He told the students he was granting an interview because he wanted to expose the “real story" behind the numbers.

Making the change probably would imperil administrators' hopes for UT-Knoxville to become one of the country's top 25 public research universities, Irvin said.

"You can kiss top 25 goodbye," Irvin said. "There’s no way you could do this and pretend that you were going to be approaching the top 25."

Irvin's boss at the university, Chris Cimino, the vice chancellor for finance and administration, said Irvin was speaking out of passion for employees, not on behalf of the university. Cimino said the university system has yet to make a decision on the outsourcing plan.

“I would not use the word disastrous because I don’t know yet," Cimino said. “We’re still working through that process, and until we get to a decision point we won't know really what that full impact would be."

The state uses Chicago-based JLL to manage roughly 10 percent of the state's facilities, and Irvin said "it was criminal, the way they treated people” during that transition. But the Haslam administration is considering expanding that outsourcing to the remainder of its properties, including universities, prisons and state parks.

Irvin is part of a state-organized team that considered the details of the original round of outsourcing and its proposed expansion. In the interview, he said the state thought the Knoxville campus would save $12 million annually, with $55 million in savings across the statewide college system.

Irvin said the figures he reviewed "didn't pass the sniff test."

"To give an example, to save 12 million on this campus, if you look at their numbers, you would have to cut our material and supply budget by 65 percent," he said. “I’m not saying we can’t be more efficient, but I don’t think we can get by with 65 percent less toilet paper. … That’s what we’re talking about."

Irvin added that the savings calculated by the state did not include extra fees the university would have to pay for other campus services.

Opting in or out

Workers' advocates have loudly criticized Haslam's plan, saying it would mean some campus workers would lose their jobs or benefits. Haslam has said colleges would be free to opt in or out of the outsourcing plan.

Irvin expressed doubts about the university's ability to opt out of the plan, a decision that will ultimately be made by UT system President Joe DiPietro.

“I think they hope to make it politically as tough as possible for higher ed to opt out,” Irvin said. "They’re going to have their talking points, and they’re going to be ready to try to exert public pressure on the president to stay in.”

Colleges can't rule out outsourcing yet, officials say

Haslam's administration has already denied a request to opt out from the Tennessee Board of Regents college system. Former Board of Regents Chancellor John Morgan in January asked that the state's technical and community colleges not be included in the outsourcing contract. Morgan had already announced his intention to resign when he made the request.

But Larry Martin, the commissioner of Finance and Administration, and Greg Adams, Haslam's chief operating officer, said in a letter that a final decision would need to wait until the formal state review of the data was complete.

Cimino said he did not know when the UT system would make a decision on the outsourcing plan.

“We continue to work through the state, and the state continues to tell higher education that they have a voice in this,” he said.

Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets. Reach Dave Boucher at 615-259-8892 and on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1