I am back, as I promised!
Reading an article in this week’s TIME magazine (09/21/2009, Vol.174, pp81), I realized that there are numerous extravagances due to prodigal administration. Probably it wouldn’t be a problem a few years ago, however nowadays, during recession, it is a necessity to slash budgets! This is what many Universities across the States thought and actually did, saving not hundreds but…thousands of dollars.
For example:
HARVARD UNIVERSITY is saving $900,000 (per year I suppose) by stopping serving weekday hot breakfasts at undergrad dorms
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY cut eight varsity sports teams, including the hand-pistol, alpine-skiing and wrestling teams, and saved $485,000
WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY saved $485,000 by punting its 100-member football team
DICKINSON COLLEGE is saving $150,000 a year by dumping its free laundry service
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO Will saves $122,000 by curtailing trash removal and window-washing
CONCORDIA COLLEGE Reduced food waste by 40% (environmental friendly too) when it ditched its cafeteria trays earlier this year
How about Western Kentucky University??? I am really curious to know.
You can find the full article in this week’s TIME issue or at the following link:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921613,00.html
It also reminded me of an article in the newspaper I read years ago, saying that airline companies saved millions of dollars by removing only one olive from each meal they served! Can you imagine that?
Let’s do the math: for example USAirways flies from JFK, Newark, Washigton DC, Chicago, Miami, Boston and Philadelphia to destinations in Europe (London, Munich, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Athens, and Istanbul). Assuming 30 one-way trips (USAirways might not fly from every US airport to every European airport I mentioned above), the round trips would be 30*2=60. The average number of passengers per plane could be 150 (probably more). What do we have so far? 60*150=9000 passengers daily flying ONLY to Europe!!! And 365*9000=3.3 million per year. How about saving 3.3 million olives every year only from European destinations? Add the trips to and from South America, Asia, Australia and Africa; an enormous amount of money!!!
Seize the day and save some money!
Michael