[labnetwork] PI funding gaps

[Mary Tang]

Hi Michael -


Excellent question for which there is no "right" answer. You are correct, if you operate as a Service Center, you can't waive debt.


The first priority is the service center, making sure it balances at the end of the fiscal year.  The next priority is to fix this problem and make sure it doesn't happen again. I know, easier said than done. We are fortunate to have access to an unrestricted account -- not everyone has this luxury. But perhaps this is something you can lobby for. Depending on how much the amount owed and how your compliance office works, bad debt might have to be carried over into the next fiscal year (so your rates would need to be increased accordingly), or would need to be reconciled in the current fiscal year (so your fees would have to be retroactively increased accordingly for everyone) -- neither option will lead to happy faculty. If your administration is like mine, someone higher up would rather find a way to cover this debt (with strings attached) and deal with one,  rather than a boatload of unhappy faculty.


We had a professor who routinely couldn't pay. A well-loved, charming, otherwise highly ethical person who was simply terrible with money. His department said, "everyone knows he has no money. Why did you let him use your facility?" Like we would know and have the ability to say "no?" In the end, we now have an account underwritten by the School of Engineering to cover debt. This allows us to close the fiscal year and buy us time to address the situation. (While we no longer accept his accounts, it doesn't affect his research -- he happily collaborates with other PI's with better financial sense.)


A shared facility is like a business in that we need to be customer-service oriented. For compliance reasons, we don't have as many adjustable knobs at our disposal. But if your administration is amenable, there are probably many different ways they can work with you to address these needs while remaining compliant.


Mary


--
Mary X. Tang, Ph.D.
Managing Director
Stanford Nanofabrication Facility
Paul G. Allen Building
420 Via Palou Mall
Stanford, CA 94305
https://snf.stanford.edu
mtang at stanford.edu<mailto:mtang at stanford.edu>

On 3/22/2024 6:45 AM, Johnson, Michael W wrote:
How do other shared user facilites deal with a situation when a regular user research group PI has a funding shortfall and can't pay user fees?

Is it typical to have some type of temporary waiver mechanism enshrined in the shared user structure or does that PI appeal to their department head to bail them out to bridge a gap?

A waiver feels problematic because it would seem to violate basic fairness in that one group could be getting "free stuff" and everybody else has to pay.

I would be interested to hear how other places deal with a sticky situation like this.





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