Re: Universities etc

From: Guy Allen Brady (galbrady@engin.umich.edu)
Date: Tue Mar 10 1998 - 17:41:07 EET


On Tue, 10 Mar 1998 harrjp@juno.com wrote:

> I am only concerned with the Universities that are operating as Service
> Bureaus. They purchase equipment and material at half the price. Who
> can compete with that!
> Why can't they operate like Georgia Tech.? I'm all for education, but
> they must use it
> for education! There has to be another way for Universities to come up
> with the money to run the equipment for educational purposes. How about
> it Universities!
>
> Just my small minded opinion.

Here at Michigan, we are not permitted to perform a service like you have
suggested at a lower cost than what is charged in the general area. I know
this because I wanted to set up our lab to be self-suppporting only and
was told we had to charge a "fair and comparable" rate to those businesses
in the area who perform the same service. It is illegal to do otherwise.

Even if I were to set up my own business and "rented" time on the
University equipment, I would have to be charged the going rate, giving me
no advantage. Besides, depending upon how the equipment was purchased or
acquired, it might be illegal to use it for any other purpose than what
the grant intended (especially federally-funded grants) unless it is
auctioned and sold back to the university.

          G. Allen Brady -- Graduate Research Assistant
Materials Science and Engineering - The University of Michigan
2219 H.H. Dow Bldg. 2300 Hayward Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2136
work: 313/936-0177 fax: 313/747-4807 email: galbrady@umich.edu
           http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~galbrady

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