Good morning,

I was out of the office when Val Kettner's inquiry and Martha Taylor's
response hit the listserv and it has been buried in my "to do" pile. This
has been a rather hot topic here lately and I would appreciate some advice.

This office has always maintained that GSA rates (or set labor rates of any
sort) are inappropriate for a university research setting because our
mission is teaching and research and we are not a dealer in goods and
services. Is this naive, unrealistic, behind the times?

My concern is how does use of GSA rates affect our Disclosure Statement, our
Cost Policy and all our other support documentation verbiage which
references "actual costs" as well as our status as a public institution?
There may be no problem at all with this but I just don't know. I realize
that the Disclosure Statement can be amended if situations change (and has
never been reviewed and approved to-date anyway).

A Federal contracting officer recently told us that we "better get on the
GSA list or we will lose out on a lot of money."  My question "is it always
appropriate for us to go after this money?" was met with surprise, chuckles
or mild irritation. We seem to be moving more and more into the support
contractor realm and out of the "research" realm.

OK -- enough philosophy. Is a fixed rate for similar labor types or a GSA
rate structure appropriate for university research? What are the pitfalls?
Is there anyone at a university using GSA rates willing to share their
experience in developing the rates and how they reconciled them (proposing,
charging, invoicing) within their existing university accounting structure?

As always, thank you.

Val Sequins
Office of Research Administration
The University of Alabama in Huntsville

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