Officials argue deal had to be kept quiet

Holding fast despite criticism that the initial decision to outsource facilities management was made with too little input, administrators maintain that tight-lipped discussion of the deal was both necessary and appropriate before the October 8 announcement. Since the decision to turn campus facilities management over to Trammell Crow Co. became public, it has come under fire from faculty, staff and students -- even those who aren't personally affected by the deal. University Council will address concerns about the decision at a special session today, requested by Council members once the breadth of the criticism became apparent. Only a "small working group of senior University managers" knew about the decision before it was announced October 8, Executive Vice President John Fry said last month. Fry said he discussed the deal with the Board of Trustees' Executive Committee, deans and a handful of other officials before signing the nonbinding letter of intent. It is difficult to determine exactly who else had input into the decision. Vice President for Facilities Management Art Gravina, Vice President for Business Services Bill Murray and Associate Vice President for Campus Services Larry Moneta refused to comment about the deal at all. Facilities managers below the top were kept out of the decisions in an effort to focus the discussion on all parties' best interests -- including employees, Fry has said. "It was really an objectivity issue," he said last month. "This is a very difficult thing to be objective about, given what the possibilities were." About 180 employees will have to apply to Trammell Crow to maintain their jobs. Fry expects the firm to offer positions to 110-150 staffers, with equal salary and benefits as they now receive. The University will help others find new jobs or provide severance packages. Even those critics who don't take issue with the provisions of the deal have argued that the University should not have decided upon it in secret. Council today will consider a resolution asking the Board of Trustees to reject the deal, as several student and staff assemblies have recommended. The main issue today may not be whether the deal is a good one, but rather the way it was reached. The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. in Houston Hall's Bodek Lounge. Because "University Council was not consulted on the decision? nor was provided sufficient time in which to independently assess" the deal, Council's resolution says, the Trustees should reject it. But University President Judith Rodin said yesterday that limiting discussion of the decision to a small group "working around the clock was deemed to be most efficient." She emphasized that administrators have only signed a nonbinding letter of intent with Trammell Crow -- and that since the announcement, all members of the University community have had an opportunity to comment on the deal. Changes to facilities management were long in the works, she said. A 1994 report urged administrators to look for ways to trim budgets, "particularly in facilities management." "This hardly leapt out without a great deal of prior conversation and discussion and prodding by both faculty and students to get this part of the campus engine working right," she said.