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TMCNet: WVU hospitality costs top $900K: Money split evenly between Lakeview, Waterfront Place

[January 04, 2009]

WVU hospitality costs top $900K: Money split evenly between Lakeview, Waterfront Place

(The Dominion Post in Morgantown (WV) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 4--WVU has spent about $918,324 on hospitality expenses at Waterfront Place Hotel and Lakeview Resort since January 2007, according to documents obtained by The Dominion Post.

Hospitality expenses cover things such as athletic team travel, conferences, luncheons and job interviews.

University officials said department heads determine which facility to use based on cost, availability and their needs for each event or activity.

Billing records requested by the newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act show that WVU has spent about $458,789 at Waterfront Place Hotel and about $459,535 at Lakeview Resort during the past two years.

WVU has made more individual payments to Waterfront Place Hotel, but the majority were less than $1,000. Though WVU has paid for fewer events at Lakeview Resort, on average, they were more expensive.

The most costly expense at Waterfront Place was for a four-day Summer Institute on Aging workshop hosted annually by WVU's Division of Social Work. WVU paid about $21,431 for the event in 2008, including the cost of room rental, audio/visual equipment rental, photocopies, parking and food.

But WVU spokeswoman Becky Lofstead said the university collected registration fees from most of the workshop participants, as WVU does for many events.

"That covered the cost of the event for the most part, minus what the department would have paid for students and staff to attend," Lofstead said.

WVU also paid $21,222 for a luncheon held at Waterfront Place for the School of Medicine's Investiture Graduation Ceremony earlier this year. More than 400 people attended the event, including faculty, students and their families.

The highest-priced expenses at Lakeview were about $45,960 and $25,827 for two weeklong summer school events hosted by WVU Extension's Institute for Labor Studies and Research earlier this year. One was for AFL-CIO, and the other was for the American Federation of Teachers.

"For these, WVU collects registration fees from participants and deposits them into a fee account and settles the bill with Lakeview at the end of the [summer] school," Lofstead said. "Costs are for lodging, meeting room rental, breaks, equipment rental and copying charges."

The athletic department accounted for several of the more expensive charges from Lakeview. Lofstead noted that the WVU football team and its coaching staff typically stay at Lakeview the night before home football games.

Charges associated with those stays include lodging, food and equipment rental.

"That's pretty customary for Division I sports," Lofstead said. "If they take an overnight trip, and they travel to a game -- say, Pittsburgh -- they kind of like to have that same routine even when they're here in town. That keeps their athletes from maybe going out at night. They have bed checks, team meals, team meetings."

More than $139,524 in charges at Lakeview were attributed to the athletic department through Oct. 15, but Lofstead noted that WVU's athletics department is a revenuegenerating unit.

"Whatever they spend at these hotels for their overnights, they recoup in other ways," she said. "That drives their budget. Otherwise, if they were on a tight budget, they wouldn't be able to do that."

Event space

Narvel Weese, vice president for administration and finance at WVU, said the university rents space for large events and meetings because there are not many facilities on campus to accommodate large events.

The existing large meeting spaces at WVU -- including the Mountainlair ballrooms and the Erickson Alumni Center -- are "utilized heavily," Lofstead said, but providing food is often a problem. Weese noted that most areas on campus where food is served are student-oriented.

"If we have an individual that we're trying to recruit, we want to get them out and let them experience some of the dining facilities in Morgantown," Weese said.

Because the university owns an office building next to Waterfront Place Hotel, Lofstead said, the hotel is a convenient facility for business lunches and meetings. But she noted that WVU also hosts events at the Ramada Inn, the Clarion Hotel Morgan, Panera Bread and other facilities with meeting space for rent.

Weese said he wasn't certain whether Lakeview Resort and Waterfront Place Hotel get the majority of WVU's business, but that's probably the case.

"I would guess that just because of the type of facilities [at Lakeview and Waterfront Place] they're going to get a little more business," he said.

Weese said there are no established guidelines to help WVU department heads choose between Lakeview or Waterfront, but availability and price are a consideration.

Will Speidel, director of sales and marketing for Lakeview, and Carolyn Show, director of sales for Waterfront, said rates at both facilities vary depending on the date, the number of people attending an event, the equipment they'll need and whether food will be provided.

An online brochure indicated that Lakeview's complete meeting package -- including meeting space, audio/visual rental, a continental breakfast, and lunch and dinner buffets -- ranges from $89 to $110 per person. Lakeview's day meeting package -- including morning coffee service and an afternoon break, but no continental breakfast or dinner buffet -- ranges from $58 to $82 per person.

"Every event is customizable," Speidel said. "We try to customize everything for every group."

Show said the base price to rent a meeting room at Waterfront Place for one day ranges from $400 to $600. The hotel recently began offering a complete meeting package -- including meeting space, lunch, dinner, breaks and overnight lodging -- for $169 per person.

Lodging rates also vary. An overnight stay at Lakeview in the winter can cost as little as $89, but a room can cost as much as $275 on WVU football game days. The average nightly rate on most days during Lakeview's peak season is about $129, Speidel said.

Show said rates at Waterfront Place start at $139 a night year-round, but they are higher during local events. The base price on a home football game day is $259, Show said.

Weese said hospitality costs must fit within each department's budget and be permitted under the university's hospitality services policy.

According to the policy, appropriate hospitality costs include planned, nonroutine events hosted by the department; interviews and meetings with job candidates; meetings with out-of-town vendors or consultants; and student activities related to recruiting, orientation, counseling or mentoring.

"You can't just go over to have lunch and use it as a write-off to say you have a business expense," Lofstead said. "It has to be legitimate."

WVU employees typically use a university-issued procurement card to pay for hospitality-related purchases, but they can also be reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses.

Lofstead said using a procurement card helps to reduce the amount of paperwork required internally after a hospitality cost is incurred. But regardless of the payment method, the university's finance department still requires detailed documentation to justify each expense.

For each event or payment, the university's hospitality services policy requires employees to provide signed approval, the purpose, the date, the location, the number of attendees, the name and title of the attendees (if less than 20), and the relationship of the attendees.

"There are a lot of regulations and a lot of rules, but we have a lot of people -- deans, directors, chairs, assistant and associate vice presidents -- around doing lots of things," Weese said. "The budget's over $760 million. We have over 28,000 students. There's a lot of activity going on."

To see more of The Dominion Post or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dominionpost.com/.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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