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Post Info TOPIC: more from cbedding
Aunt Bea

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more from cbedding
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Professor Marc DePree

Cost Accounting 320



Case: Installing an Academic Program in France



Cost Benefit Analysis – A copy of the following Payment Request was collected in an exercise of the Mississippi Open Records Act.



“PAYMENT REQUEST



Invoice #: POINT1121-2001-003



Tim Hudson, Ph.D.

Dean and Professor

College of International and Continuing Education

The University of Southern Mississippi

Box 10047

Hattiesburg, Mississippi 39406-0047



Date: November 21, 2001_________________________________



Client: The College of International and Continuing Education

of the University of Southern Mississippi



Amount Due and

Payable: $85,000.00



For: Accommodations, classrooms, and facilities use and services

for the purpose of installing an academic program in France,

fall 2002



Make check

payable to: Pontlevoy Equity Corporation




Please remit to:



Pontlevoy Equity Corporation

3200 Telegraph Road

Suit 209

Bingham Farms, Michigan 48025” (See a copy of the Purchase Order on the door of JGH 105D. A copy is also available upon request.)



Do you have information detailing the benefits of Dr. Hudson’s trip? What do you think of the expenditure of $85,000 for “installing an academic program in France?”



Students in Cost Accounting 320, 8am and 9am, expressed a preference to replace the air conditioning and heating system instead of “installing an academic program in France.” CBED’s air conditioning and heating system has not worked for at least 15 years (except in JGH’s center stairwell and the Dean’s suites and new conference room). However, my students’ immediate problem was dealing with the bugs coming through the broken window. (They weren’t laughing.) I can’t remember how many years ago the window was broken.



Would you or your students have had an alternative preference for the expenditure of $85,000? Make the case of your alternative.



Join the discussion. We want to hear from you. Your comments will be communicated to my students and university faculty who are interested in this and other expenditures made by USM.


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ram

Date:
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Do we really have the information necessary to offer coherent comments?  I have a visceral appreciation for air conditioning and window repairs, but I know little of the potential benefits of an international program of study.  Seems to me the two might make for an odd comparison, similar to the ad campaign that compares the relative benefits of puppies and those of broadband internet access.  Are these two items (a/c repair cf. USM Pontlevoy) even funded through the same budget line?  Is it a matter of the money being available for one if not spent on the other? I apologize if the answers to those questions are obvious to cost accounting students and just not obvious to me.


 



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Swan Song

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My best guess would be that it may have to do with priorities - as far as the accountability of the program is concerned. The budgets may come from two separate entities. In any event, it is pretty interesting. More background would be helpful.

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A Proper Place & Time

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A faculty governance body looking into these issues might be legitimate, and even commendable.  Engaging undergraduate students to do the same seems a little manipulative, at a minimum. 



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French Toast

Date:
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quote:




Originally posted by: ram
"Do we really have the information necessary to offer coherent comments?  I have a visceral appreciation for air conditioning and window repairs, but I know little of the potential benefits of an international program of study.  Seems to me the two might make for an odd comparison, similar to the ad campaign that compares the relative benefits of puppies and those of broadband internet access.  Are these two items (a/c repair cf. USM Pontlevoy) even funded through the same budget line? 


No, they are not. Physical Plant is funded through the General Fund. Study abroad programs are funded entirely through their program fees, which are separate from the General Fund. The professor is mixing apples and oranges, or in this case, baguettes ands croissants.


Is it a matter of the money being available for one if not spent on the other?"


No.





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ram

Date:
Pontlevoy Equity Corporation?
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I hope the students are able to develop useful information about the supposed benefits of  Hudson's 2001 trip.  That "Purchase Order on the door of JGH 105D" would sure be helpful. 


 


I admit only the sketchiest background knowledge of the Pontlevoy Project.  I am not even sure if it is still up and running.  Seems like there was a real decline in interest and promotion when the French government did not participate in our government's action in Iraq last year.


 


Anyway, I was intrigued by the reference to the Pontlevoy Equity Corp., so I did a little searching and came up with:


 


http://www.investinfrance.org/NorthAmerica/Newsroom/Reports/Quarterly2001/?p=Q1#


 


"Pontlevoy Equity Corporation, Bloomfield Hills, MI, . . . has purchased . . . the historic Abbey of Pontlevoy located near Blois in the Loire Valley [to support a program offered by USM.] USM plans to establish a study-abroad program there with the aid of a $1 million French provincial grant. Dr. Tim Hudson, . . ., said the $1 million grant will go primarily toward transforming the Crusades-era abbey and its grounds into a contemporary center for learning -- to include student living space, modern classrooms, a computer lab, library, theatre, faculty offices and other facilities. 
. . .


 


The Abbaye de Pontlevoy will be renovated along plans under review by the French government and its agency in charge of monitoring work on historic monuments. 



 "The goal is that USM students will have access to a very high quality, affordable study-abroad experience early in their academic career, . . ."


 


http://www.ifana.org/news/index-investment-reports.html



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ram

Date:
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quote:
Originally posted by: ram
" I am not even sure if it is still up and running. "

Yep, it is.


http://www.cice.usm.edu/ip/theabbey.html


http://www.euramcenter.com/



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