A new residence hall at Ohio University is in the preliminary planning stages, but The Ohio University Board of Trustees needs more information on its financing in order to fully approve it. The strategy for how the building will be financed was not approved and will be delayed until further information is presented to the board, said R. Gregory Browning, chairman of the Board of Trustees.
We just didn't have enough information to make a good decision about the series of projects
Browning said. We have made no commitment to go through with the plans.
Browning said board members want a better understanding of the cost of the residence hall, the logic behind the need for building it and the relationship between the cost and its necessity.
The preliminary plan for the new residence hall is to have double rooms, with a shared bathroom between each pair of rooms, and 350 beds, according to the Board of Trustees' meeting agenda. A revision to the financing of that project will be presented to the board in December.
The new residence hall, which will cost about $24 million, was originally presented to the board to be financed through the selling of bonds, therefore issuing a debt the university will eventually pay back. If the board approves the financing at a later date, those bonds will account for about $22 million of the project.
The other $2 million needed to finance the residence hall will come from the Residence and Dining Auxiliary reserve, said John Kotowski, associate vice president of university planning and implementation.
Selling bonds is a common financing method for the university, Browning said. OU is often borrowing money through bonds and repaying old bonds at the same time, he said.
Preliminary planning for the residence hall's location already has begun. Kotowski said the new residence hall most likely will be near Nelson Commons because studies conducted by the university show that many students prefer living near Ping Center.
The new building not only will alleviate crowded residence halls, which are now filled to maximum capacity, but also will facilitate future renovations to other residence halls while the student population is growing, Kotowski said. The new hall will be a swing building, to which students housed in a hall that needs to be renovated can move, he said.
The new building would allow us to take a building offline renovate it and reopen it to student use Kotowski said, adding that taking a building offline this year without a swing building would be impossible.
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