FY2005 SNF rates

[Paul Rissman]

As you know, SNF has been struggling with budgets concerns.  Early in July, 
our Executive Director, Yoshio Nishi, informed the labmember community of 
upcoming rate increases.  In late July, the SNF Faculty Advisory Committee 
recommended specific changes to the SNF rate structure in order to balance 
income and costs.   A modified proposal was presented to key labmembers 
last week.  Given the concerns of some of our labmembers and the limited 
time to implementation of the FY2005 rates, the SNF executive committee has 
decided on the following:

1. There will be NO CHANGE to the industrial cap and NO IMPLEMENTATION of a 
soft cap on 9/1/04.  SNF management will review expenses/income and make a 
recommendation by 9/15/04 for changes effective 11/1/04 with regards to the 
cap and a soft cap.
2. There WILL be small changes reflecting inflation and increased cost of 
doing business, effective on 9/1/04:
a. There will be an overall increase in rates for academic and industrial 
users of 3.5% to $77.63/hour and $155.25/hour respectively.  In the future, 
you should expect the rates to increase by 3.5% annually.
b. The training rate will be increased from $45/hour to $75/hour.  In the 
future, the training rate will increase by 3.5% annually.
c. The recharge rate will be increased from $45/hour to $50/hour, effective 
9/1/04.  In the future the recharge rate will increase by 3.5% annually.

I want to reassure the labmember community that every member is important 
and I appreciate the feedback I have received so far.  In fact, I want to 
encourage everyone to send me their thoughts and ideas, or visit me 
personally.  Nonetheless, we are facing budget concerns in addition to 
trying to meet the challenges of improving our capabilities, while at the 
same time continuing to provide satisfactory service.  My job is to 
facilitate this, which is, as I hope you all understand, is an enormously 
difficult task.  I hope you value this lab, the lab community, and our 
organization the way I have come to value it.  As such, I hope you will 
work with me to support changes that will be required to sustain it without 
sacrificing any of the qualities that make this a uniquely productive, 
creative place to work.

Sincerely,

Paul Rissman