UO aspires to modernize most on-campus housing.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

An ambitious student housing plan for the University of Oregon would replace two-thirds of the existing on-campus residence halls and renovate most of the rest in an effort to modernize an out-of-date housing stock and persuade more students to live on campus.

The plan would be phased in over 10 years and would result in a net increase of more than 1,500 beds. Financing options still are under consideration, but much of the work probably would be funded with state bonds repaid from the rent charged to students; the first phase is expected to cost between $40 million and $60 million.

Rents would increase 3 percent a year to cover operating costs and debt payments, and the new units would cost more than the traditional rooms that now make up the bulk of the UO housing stock. The new rooms also would be larger and have more amenities.

The plan, drawn up as a consequence of the university's sale of the off-campus Westmoreland complex last year, will be presented to the state Board of Higher Education at its meeting Oct. 4-5 in Portland. After that, it will go out for comments from the campus community before any final decisions on new housing are made.

"This is a legacy for this institution for several generations, and I couldn't be happier with where we ended the planning process," said UO Provost Linda Brady. "I think it will provide stronger bonds between the students and the campus."

A 12-person committee headed by Brady drew up the plan using information gathered by a consulting firm in campus interviews, 13 student focus groups, an analysis of 12 peer institutions and a Web-based survey that drew more than 3,100 responses.

The consultants found that almost 2,400 more students are interested in living on campus but choose not to because the kind of housing they want isn't offered. That's more than enough to support the plan's 1,530 new rooms, said campus planning director and committee member Chris Ramey.

To meet that demand, the plan calls for new suite-style rooms that share a common bathroom and, in larger models, a living area. Suites have become popular at many universities not only to attract more freshmen but also to persuade more sophomores, juniors and seniors to live on campus.

That's one of the priorities of the housing plan. The UO houses 22 percent of its undergraduates on campus, a figure that's lower than most of its peers and below a widely used standard to define a residential university.

Brady said the UO wants to boost that to at least 25 percent. It wants to do that primarily by getting more students to stay on campus after their freshman year, and suites provide housing that is more attractive to upperclassmen, she said.

Adding the new housing would mean tearing down some of the existing buildings. Which ones hasn't been decided yet, and construction and demolition would be phased so the number of rooms available each year would not decrease until substantially more rooms are available.

Overall, the plan calls for reducing the number of traditional, two-bed dorm rooms by almost 1,100, from the current 2,726 to 1,648. Replacing them would be more than 3,000 suites of various sizes.

The number of single dorm rooms would increase modestly, to 348 from the current 303. The university would continue to offer off-campus apartments and houses, although Ramey said some of the houses could be replaced with new buildings.

Some new residence hall construction is expected to occur in a new location on campus, most likely the east campus area across East 15th Avenue from the Bean complex.

It's too soon to say how the full 10-year project would affect the private rental market in the neighborhoods near campus or in the region. Vacancy rates around the UO have been very low for several years, pushing rents up and spurring a wave of redevelopment in the neighborhood west of campus.

Corey Dingman, a commercial real estate appraiser with Duncan & Brown, said a boost in attractive on-campus housing could dampen that renovation.

"It could definitely have an impact," he said. "If the university were to build new units and take people out of that market, it would probably slow down the redevelopment of private units near campus."

The UO also could be criticized for using public resources to compete unfairly with the private sector. But when the university sold Westmoreland, it put 404 units back into the private sector rent pool, and enrollment growth will offset some of the lost renters.

John Brown, of the commercial real estate company Evans, Elder & Brown, said the new housing could cause some ripples among developers and property managers.

"There are pros and cons," he said. "Some people are going to be upset, but I don't think the general market is."

A big part of why the university wants to update its housing is the opportunity to expand its programs aimed at linking residence life with academics. The UO already is promoting that link with its freshman interest groups and other learning communities, and it has taken the next step in the new Living Learning Center.

The LLC has classrooms and meeting rooms where faculty can hold office hours, features likely to be part of any new and renovated buildings. The idea is to bring a variety of learning experiences into the residence halls to strengthen students' connection to academics.

"To make that an integrated piece of their educational experience is something we can't afford to pass on," said Ramey.