Room quest yields chaos

Administrative confusion over the status of an obscure 1990 Undergraduate Assembly report caused temporary problems for student groups trying to reserve rooms in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall this past month, according to University officials. Wharton junior Rebecca Coleman said yesterday that when she called to reserve a classroom in Steinberg-Dietrich for a sorority event last month, employees at Wharton's Classroom Support Service Office told her that any non-Wharton group would be charged $1 per person to use the room. "They said they were charging to save money on maintenance," Coleman said. "But I thought the facility was supposed to be open 24 hours free of charge to any group." Wharton had previously agreed not to charge student groups to use their facilities unless the group's event required additional security or special room set-up, Budget Director Steve Golding said last week. Golding added that he thought Wharton and the other schools had reached an agreement that would keep the facility open free of charge 24 hours a day as long as the other schools contributed money to help maintain the building. But Deputy Budget Director Benjamin Hoyle said that Wharton alone is currently paying the cost of maintaining the hall until another funding arrangement can be made. Jaqueline Matthews, Wharton human resources and administration director, said earlier this week that Wharton has never charged students to use the building. According to Hoyle, all of this confusion results from a report released by the UA All-Night Study Committee in December 1990, which detailed the results of a survey on the usage of Steinberg-Dietrich between the hours of 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. The final draft of the report was to be published in January 1991, but no final report was ever published, according to UA officials. UA officials said they are unsure why no final report was published. "As far as I know, it was a resolved issue," said Eric Palace, current UA facilities and dining committee chair. The purpose of the report was to aid the undergraduate schools, the provost's office, and the budget office in developing a fair cost sharing formula for the maintenance of Steinberg-Dietrich, and to ensure that students from any school could use the facility free of charge. "The provost had agreed to underwrite the cost of the hall for one year during the interim period [until the final report was published]," Hoyle said. The initial report was misplaced by the provost's office, according to Executive Assistant to the Provost Linda Koons. Hoyle said he had trouble locating the report as well, but that he was eventually able to find a copy. "This whole report just got submerged beneath larger issues," Hoyle said. Hoyle added he believes that when the provost's office stopped underwriting the facility and no final usage study had come out, Wharton was confused as to what to do and may have mistakenly started charging people. "Part of the problem was that there was no satisfactory closure to this issue," Hoyle said. He added that Wharton is not currently charging students for use of the facility and that negotiations will take place to come up with a formula to divide the cost of maintenence on the hall. The original report had concluded that between the hours of 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. approximately 45 percent of those using the facility were in Wharton, 38 percent in the College, nine percent in Engineering, and seven percent in other schools.