Physical Plant Services staff went across the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus last week to lower thermostats down to 68 degrees, four degrees lower than usual at this time of year.

Gov. Jim Doyle issued an executive order on Nov. 21, that all state agencies lower their thermostats in order to reduce the cost of natural gas, which has increased about 50 percent.

Andrew Nelson, director of Physical Plant Services, expects the new temperature may impact people’s comfort to a small extent but hopes they will quickly acclimate to it.

“We often do things that we don’t like, but (that) we can live with,” he said. “Students and faculty will have to dress for the occasion.”

Nelson said that the university has been working on making the campus more energy efficient for the last 12 years by upgrading the entire system and installing motion sensors.

“Now it’s to the point for everybody to do his or her part (to conserve energy),” he said. “Everybody has to be part of the solution in terms of doing things like turning off lights and computers.”

Although steps are being taken to conserve, the overwhelming price increase was not implemented into the current budget, meaning the funds would have to come from another source, said Andrew Richards, director of Business and Finance Services.

Richards said that in the past when utilities went up, the university went to the state legislature to ask for more funds. However, this year there are none available.

“We received a letter form the Department of Administration indicating that agencies should not make the request, and must work within their own base budgets,” he said. “We haven’t established what the costs will be, and we do not yet know where those funds will come from. The bottom line is that the higher costs have been passed down to UWM and we’ll have to find other resources.”

The long-term impact of the costs will certainly have an impact on students’ tuition, Richards said. If prices remain high, Richards said that that portion would be built into the budget. Nearly 70 percent of the university’s utility bill is funded by state funds and the rest is funded through tuition.

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