Departmental Phone Bills. The staff member wondered why departments had to pay their own phone bills since a lot of the calls are more university-related than department-related. Rose asked someone in the Business and Finance Division about this but was unable to get an answer. It is our understanding that the university used to pay all the phone bills, but the bills got out of hand, and it was thought that giving departments responsibility for their own would make them more aware of charges incurred.
RESPONSE FROM MARTHA STRAWSMA: (July 12) “When it was decided that each department would pay their own telephone bills, money was put in each departmental budget to cover the expense. The amount given to each department was based on the previous year’s usage.
If it were decided for the bill to be paid from one source, those funds would be taken from the departmental budgets to cover the phone bill.
If each department carefully monitors their telephone expense, they probably do not use the entire amount of money given to them for telephones. Also, the cost of long distance has dropped drastically in the last year, causing each department to pay less.”