Ohio University is considering partnering with private companies to renovate and run the dorms, the head of finance told the Board of Trustees last week.
The university is in the middle of a 10-year plan to renovate most of the residence halls on East Green and an extended plan would include renovating all dorm buildings. But the sagging economy, plus a determination that OU can't make the repairs quickly enough has led to talk of working with private companies.
We're looking to look at all the options out there and try to meet Ohio University's needs
said Christine Sheets, director of Residential Housing. The reason is to also look at something that will allow us to move much faster through the renovations of the residence halls. There are 42 residence halls and we're not moving fast enough. We can't wait 35 years to
do Scott Quad.
At the Board of Trustees' Resources Committee meeting last week, OU's chief financial officer Bill Decatur told trustees the university could not raise room and board rates high enough to pay for the maintenance on the buildings.
We have to find a way to go beyond what we can afford through fee increases Decatur said.
The board did vote on Friday to increase room and board rates 7 percent and 3 percent, respectively, for next year.
Only four dorms were renovated between 1970 and 2008, Decatur said, and a significant portion of the university's deferred maintenance costs - which officials have estimated to be as high as half a billion dollars - are in housing and dining facilities.
Sheets said she's not sure what a privatized dorm system would look like at OU because different companies will provide different services and the university isn't sure what it needs yet. She said she also doesn't know what influences private-public arrangements would have on room and board rates.
Companies could do everything from just renovating the buildings to managing them or leasing rooms. The university never has partnered with a private company on a residence hall before, though it does work with private firms to run the University Courtyard and Mill Street apartment complexes.
OU has prioritized smaller dorms over bigger projects for now, Sheets said. For example, the university will postpone a costlier renovation of Jefferson Hall to work on smaller projects.
Dave Logan, president of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said he opposes turning the dorms into a private partnership. Although he couldn't comment on specific effects to union jobs without hearing a formal plan, he said the university wouldn't get very far if such a collaboration affected the number of union jobs on campus.
Although the final plans to renovate the buildings on all the greens are still not set, Sheets said the estimated cost of updating most of East Green is $150 million.
And that did not even finish East Green
she added.
- Caitlin Bowling contributed to this article
This story has been changed from its original version. Officials have estimated the deferred maintenance backlog at about half a billion dollars.
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Emily Grannis
