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TII ~ Telecommunications Infrastructure Initiative

Revised: 1 April 2004

The Telecommunications Infrastructure Initiative (TII) is being funded from two sources: the proceeds of the sale of a bond authorized by the voters of the State of California under Proposition 1A (Prop 1A) in 1998 and technology funds held by the California State University Chancellor's Office in a central, systemwide account (CO Tech Funds). These moneys can be used only for the TII build-out and provisioning of permanent, State-owned buildings. Development of communications to temporary building must come from the University operating budget. The University must also develop its own funding mechanism for most of the ongoing refresh and development costs after the TII project is completed.

The Telecommunications Infrastructure Initiative build-out is being treated by the State of California as a construction project. Such projects go through four stages. The Chancellors' Office department for Capital Planning, Design and Construction (CPDC) describes these phases as Preliminary Plans ("P"), Working Drawings ("W"), Construction ("C"), and Equipment ("e"). The project budget is as follows:

Stage Activity Cost P Preliminary Plans	551,000
W Working Drawings	406,000
C Interbuilding Conduit	93,000
Build-out	5,161,000
Hazardous Removal	386,000
Architect Services	204,000
Contract Management Services	433,000
Contingency	401,000
e Equipment	1,740,000
PWC Other Required Services	304,000
PWCe Project Total	$ 9,679,000

Details of this budget are as follows:

Preliminary Plans

The Preliminary Plans are the initial architectural drawings used to scope and develop a preliminary budget for a project. The budget for the preliminary planning is $551,000 funded from the proceeds of the sale of a bond approved by the voters of the state under Proposition 1A (Prop 1A) in 1998.

Working Drawings

The working drawings build on the Preliminary drawings by adding sufficient detail to be used as bid documents for the selection of a Contractor. For review purposes, working drawings are developed in completion phases of 50%, 90% and 100%. The budget for working drawings is $406,000, with $337,000 funded by Prop 1A and the remaining $69,000 funded by the Chancellor's Office from technology dollars (CO Tech Funds) that are included in the budget "compact" with the Governor.

Construction

Most of the conduit that is required for interbuilding media is being installed as part of the Campus Utility Project. The value of this part of the project is about $1,000,000, with those costs being absorbed by the Utility Project. This approach means the campus will not need to be trenched twice (once for the Utility Project and once for TII). However, there is some additional trenching that will be required. The budget for this part of construction is $93,000 funded by Prop 1A.

The primary part of construction will be the build-out of the entry ways (where the interbuilding media enters a building), spaces (telecommunications equipment rooms), pathways (cable trays, risers, etc.), and media (copper, coax, and fiber). The budget for construction is $5,161,000, with $4,741,000 funded by Prop 1A. The remaining amount, $420,000 for intrabuilding media, will be funded from the CO Tech Funds. A further $386,000 is budgeted for hazardous materials removal, funded by Prop 1A.

The project also includes a budget of $204,000 for architect services during construction, $433,000 for contract management services, and a contingency of $401,000. Of this total, $889,000 is funded by Prop 1A, and the remaining $149,000 will be funded with CO Tech Funds.

Equipment

The Equipment budget is $1,740,000 funded from the CO Tech Funds. This amount is to pay for the electronics (switches, routers, hubs, amplifiers, firewalls, network operations center, etc.) as well as design and implementation services from a systems integrator. The campus will use its existing data networking equipment as a trade-in.

Other Required Services

Throughout a large construction project such as the TII, there are a number of additional services required, such as fire marshal inspections, plan checks, testing, and hazardous materials surveying and monitoring (separate from hazardous material removal). The project budget for these other required services is $304,000 funded by Prop 1A.

Refresh

The TII calls for the refresh (scheduled replacement) of the electronics on a regular cycle to ensure the network stays state-of-the-art: typically a three-year cycle for most of the equipment. The Chancellor's Office intends to distribute CO Tech Funds to the campus to assist with the associated costs. However, the amount allocated will be based on the value of the electronics installed during the initial project and this amount will not be increased for either inflation or expansions of the network.

For example, when the Behavioral and Social Sciences Building comes on line, the network infrastructure for the building will be included in its construction costs and the electronics to light up the building will be included in what is called Group II costs as part of its equipment stage. When it comes time to refresh the electronics in the BSS Building, the campus will need to provide its own funds to do so. That means that over time, the CO Tech Funds will not be sufficient to pay for a campus-wide refresh.

Telecommunications and Network Services will need to develop a funding mechanism to paying these excess costs. One approach would be to allocate a direct support budget from the University's general fund. Another approach would be to charge a connect fee which would pay for the on-going support and refresh costs of the network. Such a charge would apply to all connections on the campus, not just those added after the project completes – all users should receive equivalent services for equivalent charges, and the costs should be considered a campus-wide obligation where everyone contributes to the solution. Extensive consultation will be used to develop a funding mechanism, and a formal proposal will be submitted through the University Resource Planning and Budget Committee.

Caveat

The CO Tech Funds come from general funds in the Chancellor's Office which are available because the California State University has a "compact" with the Governor that the CSU budget will grow by a known amount each year based on the CSU's willingness to take additional students. The compact gives the CSU a secure budget-planning environment in which it can make long-term commitments to initiatives because it knows the funding will be there. With the dot-com bust, the energy crises, and all the other pressures on the California economy, it is within the realm of possibility that the compact might need to be broken at some point in time and the CO Tech Funds lost. If that happens before the completion of Humboldt's project, we may have to make up for the loss of those Tech Funds in order to complete the project.

The CO Tech Funds also face a second potential threat. The Prop 1A funds only cover the TII project costs for two-thirds of the CSU campuses. The expectation is that the voters will pass a new bond measure in 2002/03 to fund the project for the other one-third. If the bond were not to pass, it will be only fair for the CSU to fund that other one-third from some internal source, which could the CO Tech Funds.

Telecommunications and Network Services has established an account in which it is holding funds to equip temporary buildings on the campus because temporary buildings cannot be equipped using funding from Prop 1A. If CO Tech Funds are lost, some of that loss will have to come from the TNS account, essentially depleting that account, and the campus still may be required to come up with additional funds.