Construction costs to fall on Bruins
Students expected to pay $113 fee for seismic renovation
By Patrick Kerkstra
There is a bill attached to the seismic reconstruction of Kerckhoff Hall and Ackerman Union and Bruins will be the ones paying it through a new student seismic fee.
When retrofitting efforts on the two buildings are completed, the university will begin charging students an annual payment, tentatively set at $113, to cover the costs. A definite figure will not be known until the completion of construction on the two buildings.
"The fee will be partially determined by total project cost," said Susan Santon, Capital Programs' director of finance and capital strategy. "Another variable is the number of students in place (at UCLA)."
Retrofitting efforts on Kerckhoff and Ackerman are now being paid for by a bond the university issued to private investors. In the future, students will pay back the debt to investors, including interest, over a span of 27 years.
"The lion's share, two-thirds of it, will be paid by the fee. The fee applies to the life safety part of construction," said Jason Reed, executive director of the associated students. "One-third of it, the part that applies to the Ackerman expansion, will be paid by ASUCLA net revenues."
After a structural report showed that over 30 buildings on campus were seismically at risk, the university and students' association became concerned about the safety of campus structures, officials said. This led to the creation of the university's Seismic Correction Program in 1987.
"The Capital Programs division of UCLA went to the regents and said, look there's a real seismic risk here, and we need to do something about it. Will you authorize a student seismic fee up to some limit per student per year, until the bond is paid off (they asked)," said Co-Chairwoman Karol Dean of the associated students' board of directors finance committee.
The regents agreed, and the student seismic fee was born.
However some students resented the additional charge.
"I suppose I'd be more sympathetic to the fee if they weren't trying to raise reg fees already," said Ari Bernabei, a fourth-year art student.
Others said they were glad that the association was strengthening their buildings.
"I don't like the idea of paying another fee of course, but I think it's worth it to have safe buildings," said second-year history student Lindsey Narin.
However, there is a chance that the fee could be lowered if the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds a substantial portion of the structural improvements on Kerckhoff and Ackerman, officials said.
"There are two kinds of FEMA funding," Dean said. "One is the kind you get to repair something that's broken. Another kind of funding is the kind you get to mitigate future damages, so that the next time an earthquake comes, you don't get broken again."
Most of the project, about $37 million, according to the associated students, applies toward the prevention of future damages.
"The FEMA funding we're reasonably likely to get is repair for damages suffered because of the earthquake itself," Dean said.
Officials fear that student chances for FEMA relief are hurt by the previous existence of funding for the project.
"One thing we're afraid may harm our chances is that these projects to fix Kerckhoff and Ackerman, were planned with a source of funding already in place the student seismic fee." Dean said.
"The government may look at this and say, let's give our money to somebody who doesn't have any other source of funding," Dean added.
The scheduled completion of the two buildings is spring 1996.