Jim,

At Lehigh, we have "maintenance accounts".  These accounts fund the
maintenance and repair of equipment through use charges.  The cost of the
annual maintenance and repair is divided by the estimated annual hours of
usage per year to come up with an hourly rate for the use of the equipment.
This works very well for generic equipment which is used by many different
departments and projects.  After the system is in place, the rate is adjusted
based on actual experience.

The key here is:  EVERY user must be charged OR you cannot charge the federal
government.  The federal government must be charged the lowest rate, so if
there is any category of user that you do not want to charge, then the lowest
rate is zero!

Therefore, if the equipment is used for educational use, the course or
department must be charged at the same rate that you would charge research
grants.  The departments who do this successfully have the use charges built
into their departmental budgets.  Sometimes discretionary funds must be used
to cover those costs if a deficit develops but it works better than getting
no recovery from research grants.  Also, it is perfectly acceptable to charge
industry and faculty consultants at a higher rate to develop a "nestegg" for
new or upgraded equipment.  (The difference between the base
educational/research rate and the industrial rate is put in a separate
account.)

Good luck!

Ruth Tallman

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
Lehigh University
526 Brodhead Ave.
Bethlehem, PA  18015
Phone: 610-758-3024
E-Mail: xxxxxx@lehigh.edu