Purchasing Card program extended to departments, VSA

Last year, if a Vassar Student Association (VSA)-funded organization wanted to purchase supplies or services—if the Vassar Filmmakers wanted to buy a tripod, if the Debate Society wanted to buy a gavel or if the Investment Club wanted to buy a calculator—they would all complete and sign a Short Requisition Form and then visit the VSA Vice President for Finance to acquire his signature as well. Upon the completion of the form, the organization leader would deliver it to the Purchasing Department for a processing period of at least three days.

For orders under $2,000, the Purchasing Specialist would work on, approve, and physically place the purchase, filling out a form online, talking with a vendor and sometimes even bargaining for a lower price. To make the purchase itself, the Purchasing Specialist would use a Purchasing Office credit card, sometimes referred to as the Purchasing Card or the P-Card.

This year, however, the College has issued VSA VP for Finance Scott Pascal '10 his own Purchasing Card, with which he can make orders directly online or over the phone without involving the Purchasing Specialist. Though the College has had a Purchasing Card program since 2001—with larger departments like Athletics, Biology and Buildings and Grounds holding their own cards—newly-available technology has enabled the College to extend the program to all departments on campus, including the VSA. "We have had a Purchasing Card program since 2001," explained Assistant Director of Purchasing Alex Averin, "and it has definitely evolved since then. The VSA actually used to have a Purchasing Card back in 2002, and after a trial run for a semester or so, we decided not to continue it because we did not have proper control over the expenses made in terms of who buys what and when and so forth."

"That was seven years ago," continued Averin. "Now, JPMorgan Chase—the company with whom we have the Purchasing Card—has provided us with technological enhancements and capabilities that weren't available back then." Averin explained that the Purchasing Office now has a greater ability to monitor and manage expenses across campus online and in real time—and each Purchasing Card can have a different limit, monthly limit or per-transaction limit.

"They're asking that in every department on campus there is someone with a P-Card and that they are responsible for making their own purchases up to $2,000," explained Carol Jarvis, who served as Purchasing Specialist for the last three years before the position was eliminated this spring. "I think this will work fine for departments, but I don't think that it's in the best interest of the person in the VSA VP for Finance position to have that responsibility."

Like Jarvis, some believe that the change would significantly increase the workload of the Vice President for Finance, since he would no longer simply be signing a Short Form, but would have to complete or help complete a vendor's form online. Others worry that putting administrators' work on unpaid students is unfair in principle. Last year's Vice President for Finance Marcelo Buitron '09 had some experience with the new system late last spring when it was first introduced. "The spring was a kind of hybrid system for us. I think that the VP for Finance has a lot of work already," said Buitron, who explained that in addition to overseeing purchasing orders, the Vice President for Finance also handles reimbursements, distributing petty cash, chairing the VSA Finance Committee and the regular responsibilities of any VSA Executive Board member.

"So this is definitely a heavier burden," continued Buitron. "It's not like this is nuclear science, but the problem is that it can be very time-consuming. When I dealt with the Purchasing Card, organizations came, and we had to order the item online and type in the shipping address, billing address and card number. I think in the end it took at least six or seven minutes to process a purchase in my office hours. If you multiply that by the number of organizations, you can imagine how the time adds up," said Buitron.

According to Jarvis, in March 2009, 38 credit card orders and 14 purchase orders were made; in April, 50 credit card orders and 46 purchase orders were made; and in May, 30 credit card orders and 33 purchase orders were made. Additionally, during this three-month period, there were 156 reimbursements that the VP for Finance would have had to approve as well.

Averin and Assistant Vice President for Budget & Planning David English explain, however, that while the kind of work has changed for the Vice President for Finance, the volume has not. "The nature of work that the VP for Finance is doing has changed, but the volume has stayed the same," insisted Averin. "Last year, if you needed to purchase something, you would go to the VP for Finance, he would say ‘yes' or ‘no,' sign your form and the next step for the student would be to come to the Purchasing Office, where we would ask you to sit at a computer in the office and place the order. When you would get to the part where you punch in the credit card, we come and do only that part for you."

"All we're doing now," continued Averin, "is directing the traffic to the VP for Finance, where the student will place the order and the VP will come in at the last minute and put in the P-Card number. Even last year, the organization still had to come to the VSA office to get a physical signature. The VP for Finance can keep the same policy by saying you have to physically come to me and place your order at the last step."

English added that the College and the VSA may consider distributing ghost cards to larger organizations, so that they can responsibly handle their own purchases. "Our plan is that maybe in the future the VP for Finance can allocate other cards to organizations that have high budgets. That way, it would be easier to give them a card and say, ‘I want to see what you are going to buy, but you can go ahead and buy it yourself,' which would save some time," noted English.

Pascal explained that because the academic year is just beginning, he is still working to gage what works best for him. Pascal mentioned the possibility of installing a separate computer in the VSA office that organization leaders and treasurers could use to make orders—up until the final credit-card portion of the online form, where Pascal would have to step in.

"Maybe the College could consider the VP for Finance another assistant," suggested Buitron. "They don't need to necessarily hire someone, but I do think that they're going to need some extra help. Regardless, this semester will definitely be a good trial to see how things will go."