UA officials set sights on private sector

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Summer Wildcat Michael Cusanovich

Although 92 services on campus are already run by private companies, the University of Arizona will farm out more, said Michael Cusanovich, vice president for research and a member of the University of Arizona's Privatization Committee.

"The goal is to privatize everything we can reasonably privatize over time," Cusanovich said Tuesday.

The Arizona Board of Regents, which approves campus privatization, is assembling a new committee to hash out the issue. Regent President Judy Gignac said the committee will be responsible for making recommendations about the issue to the board.

"We will keep in mind what the impact is on students and how we lessen the impact on employees," Gignac said.

Privatization, the hiring of outside vendors to perform jobs historically handled by university employees, is taking over University of Arizona's janitorial and food services, groundswork and computer maintenance.

The university is researching it as a way to decrease costs and improve the quality of auxiliary services on campus, Cusanovich said.

"It is generally believed that the private sector does things more efficiently than the government sector," he said. "If we find out that can be done, then it is a benefit to the UA."

He added that privatization may mean lower tuition for students.

"We are trying to figure out how we can finance that and minimize the cost to the students or the institution," he said. "One aspect is to what extent we can privatize sectors of the (Memorial Student) Union."

Cusanovich said the benefits of privatizing pieces of a new Student Union are money up front from the vendors or long-term revenue from their leases.

He said officials are also looking into privatizing the UA motor pool - a 90-vehicle fleet that university departments and students can rent out for school functions.

Julius Parker Jr., UA's associate vice president for business affairs, said a private company could run the motor pool by early 1999 if the state and university approve the plans.

He said the university is waiting for the state to approve a list of costs, which the UA must consider when assessing bids before making a decision to privatize.

Cusanovich said that while the university can benefit from using private companies, it will not move ahead without extensive research. The UA does not have a timeline for the privatization because the requests for proposals to solicit bids take an enormous amount of preparation.

He added that sometimes, when requesting bids, the UA finds out it has needs the private sector cannot accommodate.

"We must consider every conceivable need, like logistics and options, in great detail," Cusanovich said. "We must make sure we don't miss any critical function."

Anthony C. Braza can be reached via e-mail at Anthony.C.Braza@wildcat.arizona.edu