UO Senate rejects sale of housing complex.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

The University of Oregon Senate voted unanimously Wednesday against the proposed sale of the Westmoreland student housing complex and asked the university president to start the planning process over.

The vote adds some additional volume to the chorus of opposition that has greeted UO President Dave Frohnmayer's decision to seek a buyer for the 404-unit complex, which also is opposed by student government, tenants and some state legislators. But the Senate action is not binding; university administrators say they do not plan to scrap the idea or start over.

UO Provost John Moseley said the sale would be in the university's best long-term interest because it's the only way it can raise the money needed to make improvements to the cramped and aging dormitories on campus and add the modern new facilities that more students expect.

The $15 million to $18 million expected to be earned from the sale eventually would be invested back into housing, although that may happen by purchasing and developing other "strategic properties" near campus or in Portland that will then generate money from leases and other activities that will help finance housing projects.

Senate members are worried that the loss of the complex will hurt students, particularly the international and graduate students who make up 70 percent of the renters in the complex. Westmoreland, with rents for two-bedroom apartments just under $500, provides low-cost housing to students who earn low wages as graduate teaching fellows, or GTFs.

"The administration seems not to have fully taken into account the impact of the sale on its residents, especially international students and their families, and the less tangible matters of community that Westmoreland embodies," said history professor Matthew Dennis.

Westmoreland provides affordable housing that makes it possible for the university to attract top graduate students in spite of the low wages paid to GTFs, who are essential to research and who teach numerous classes and lead discussion groups and labs.

International students - who rent 87 units in the complex - also are important to the university's bottom line because they pay much higher tuition that helps offset tuition for resident students.

"If we take that (low-cost housing) away, we're going to have a very hard time making the best offers to the (graduate) students we want to bring in," said Karen McPherson, a professor of romance languages. But faculty were equally concerned that the administration decided to sell the complex without first consulting the Senate or going through the campus planning and consultation process. They called it part of a disturbing trend of the university administration acting unilaterally and cutting faculty out of the decision-making process.

"I support the motion because it suggests and supports the idea of us working together ... and going forward instead of us going sideways," said biology professor Nathan Tublitz.

Moseley disagreed with the suggestion that he and Frohnmayer should have consulted faculty before proposing the sale. He said decisions on such matters are not subject to the campus governance process and said the decision was made in an appropriate manner.

He also said the university is responding to a 2002 Senate report that said the lack of modern student housing was approaching the crisis stage and urged the administration to find ways to finance improvements.

In a letter sent to faculty Wednesday, Frohnmayer urged them not to act on the motion, calling it "not timely and not helpful." He said the issue has been subject to extensive discussion and that "interested persons" were consulted, but he said the decision is one for the administration.

The decision to sell the complex "is one entrusted to the University's administration rather than a subject that falls within the province of faculty legislative governance," he wrote.

"The proposed sale is, in my judgment, necessary for the continuing financial health of the University, and for our attractiveness as a destination for both resident and non-resident students," he wrote. "The fiscal downside of a failure to act in a timely manner looms very large."