Monday, June 14, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com '7 ENDOWMENT From Page 1 allocated. And while Newman would not definitively say that the regents were planning to lower the endowment payout rule, she said they would likely vote on a change this summer. "I think it will probably come before the Board in June or July," Newman said. = If the change is to go into effect for the upcoming year, the June tim- ing would coincide with the Board of Regents' approval for the University's 2010-2011 budget and student tuition rates, which is scheduled to take place later this week. LEED From Page 2 ting a more sustainable building, this decision doesn't really get you a lot... We were already pretty green in our building aspects." He added that the previous stan- dard for sustainability in University construction already brought build- ings about 75 percent of the way to the new LEED silver standard. Peggy Matta, the chair of the Green Schools Committee for the Detroit regional chapter of the USGBC, said having an outside source confirm the University's efforts in creating a sus- tainable campus is a valuable form of validation. "(It's important to have) somebody that's not you corroborating the fact that you've built the building to the design standards you say you have," Matta said. "There are other green systems out there but they're all self- certifying ... but that doesn't go far enough we think." To stress the importance of green buildings, the USGBC website reports that buildings are responsible for 38.9 percent of primary energy use, 38 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, 72 percent of electricity consumption and 13.6 percent of potable water use in the U.S. LEED-accredited professional Jan Culbertson is a senior principal at A3C Collaborative Architecture located on East Huron Street in Ann Arbor. Culbertson said when she and part- ner Dan Jacobs first ventured into the world of sustainable architecture in the 1970s, the concept was more of a "counterculture" idea. Now, she said, designing buildings to "perform" to certain standards of sustainability is becoming the norm. "(The USGBC) transformed the whole construction industry by pro- viding that rating system," she said. "There's this demand for green build- ings and (they're) driving it." Both the budget and tuition rates can be affected by the amount of money available from the University's endowment, which partially pays for a wide variety of expenses at the Uni- versity, including student financial aid and program support in certain areas across campus. According to the University's Office of Public Affairs and Media Relations' website, the endowment contributed $244 million to help cover expenses in the University's budget last year. The agenda for the University's Board of Regents June meeting this Thursday will be posted online at noon today. Asked about the topic last week, University spokeswoman Kelly Cun- ningham declined to comment on Prior to this new commitment, the University had already received two LEED certifications for campus build- ings - a gold certification in 1994 for the Dana Building, home of the School of Natural Resources and Environ- ment, and a silver certification earlier this year for the new Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Both of those cer- tifications, however, were based on an older rating system, whereas new construction will meet the silver stan- dard of the new system, dubbed LEED 2009, according to Alexander. Culbertson said the new system enforces prerequisites that buildings must meet in order to even qualify for certification, including pollution pre- vention during construction, a 20-per- cent water use reduction, a 10-percent improvement in energy efficiency over the national standard, storage and col- lection of recyclables and a no-smok- ing policy both inside the building and within a certain distance outside the building. Culbertson added that the new system also weighs points differently in a way that emphasizes energy effi- ciency and carbon dioxide emissions reduction, and it offers bonus points for buildings that address regionally specific environmental priorities. Alexander said the improvements of LEED 2009 are partially why Uni- versity President Mary Sue Coleman and the Environmental Sustainability Executive Council made this commit- ment. "There's been kind of this building momentum over the years and when their version 2009 came out and we looked at it, it really is a much more improved system over the earlier ver- sions," Alexander said. The School of Natural Resources and Environment website details the numerous technologies and materials used in the "greening of Dana" that make the building a prime example of a sustainable building, including the use of solar power, a radiant cooling system, insulation, mechanical and the topic, saying she couldn't confirm anything about the potential change. The University's endowment cur- rently pays out five percent of its overall value annually. However, the University's total endowment value is determined by a seven year rolling average calculated at the end of every fiscal quarter, which means that the percent paid out of the endowment may be slightly more or less than five percent of its current marketvalue. The University's seven year rolling average procedure replaced a three year rolling average procedure in 2006 as a way to provide more stable payouts against market unpredict- ability. Prior to its three year rolling average policy, the University paid out the full interest earned on its invest- ments. In an April interview, University President Mary Sue Coleman said dis- cussions around the topic were a rou- tine evaluation based on prior action taken by the University's Board of Regents. "We changed from a three year rolling average to a seven year roll- ing average about four years ago," Coleman said in April. "And so in that action item, we did four years ago, we said periodically we wanted to go back and look at just the rule itself of five percent, so that's the discussion we've been having." In the same interview, Coleman said in evaluating the spending rule, it's important to keep in mind that the endowment serves not only the University's current needs but also its future ones. "We're trying to balance paying for the future with providing enough money for the units today and that's a tricky balance," Coleman said. However, at the time, Coleman would not say whether an increase or decrease would be more likely. In an interview on the same day, Tim Slottow, executive vice president and chief financial officer, also refused to state explicitly whether an increase or decrease might be forthcoming. However, until asked about the pos- sibility of increasing the University's endowment payout, Slottow only dis- cussed the possibility of a decrease, adding that it might make more sense for the University at the present. Construction at the University Law School will be certifed as a LEED silver project. electrical systems that are control- lable in individual work spaces, dual flush toilets, sensor-activated faucets and low-flow plumbing fixtures. Alexander said the Dana building costs slightly more to maintain than is expected for future construction projects. "We do have a little history on Dana on the cost to maintain some of the systems," he said, "and it is a little bit higher because we've got things like composting toilets that we normally don't deal with ... so the cost goes up there." He added that some of the more standard ways to achieve LEED cer- tification like having extra insulation and using more efficient fan systems won't substantially affect mainte- nance costs. According to Alexander, the only major opposition to the new initiative is fueled by worry over increased con- struction costs, which he estimated would be about a two-to-four-percent increase. "In this day and age, cost is always something you have to overcome," he said. "The decision was made that the benefits outweighed the costs." Culbertson said the increased con- struction costs will be more than compensated in the long run through money-saving sustainable technology. According to the USBGC website, an investment of about two percent of construction costs in green build- ing design will ultimately result in an overall saving of about 20 percent of the total construction costs over time. Culbertson said this type of major commitment to sustainability in buildings is not groundbreaking and, in fact, has become quite popular and continues to grow. "It's the way we should be building anyway," she said. > Online at MichiganDaily.com '3 Outdoor Adventures: Find more than just canoe rent- als at this 'U' organization.