Submitted by Chairman Bill Hall

 

The University of Michigan recently began construction of a new residence hall. The North Quad Residential and Academic Complex will house approximately 500 students, in addition to academic facilities for the School of Information and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts on the University’s Central Campus. Initial project approval set the cost at $137 million, but subsequent plans increased the cost to $175 million. Funded in part by a debt service, the university expects residence hall revenues to fund operations.

 

While the university’s plan constitutes a commendable effort to keep up with increasing enrollment and student housing demands, the project remains an anachronism. Michigan’s public universities have failed to consider the expertise and innovative financing mechanisms that other institutions of higher learning nationwide have used to privatize residence hall projects. In an economy of ever-increasing specialization, the U of M’s housing services would benefit from privatization. While universities certainly have expertise in academic pursuits, they should in turn recognize the expertise of others in the specialized field of residence hall facilities.

 

University residence hall privatization usually takes the form of a public-private partnership, or PPP...