Editor’s note: This story was updated at 3:15 p.m. with more complete information

Most of WKU’s oldest dorms are set to be replaced in a sweeping new housing plan WKU President Timothy Caboni presented to the Board of Regents on Friday.

“A large challenge requires an even larger solution, and we’re going to do that at this university,” Caboni told the regents in a report that addressed the announcement on May 16 that WKU’s three newest dorms will be closed for the coming year and one of them must be torn down. 

“We’re going to pivot to a complete transition,” said Caboni. 

Since 1999, WKU’s residence halls have been owned by the nonprofit WKU Student Life Foundation, an entity WKU created to renovate its dorms and build new facilities. 

According to Caboni, the university taking a more involved role with dorm construction will increase the quality of building inspections as they are built.

“One of the innovations that the Student Life Foundation created for the University was an ability to operate outside of the state’s normal operating procedures and RFP [request for proposals] process,” Caboni said in an interview. “That could provide an advantage on one hand, but also you’re seeing the outcomes of that.”

Caboni said the current system is not one of his design but it allows him to move forward and “re-innovate” WKU’s housing.

Under the plan Caboni outlined Friday, the WKU Student Life Foundation and WKU would find a private partner to jointly move forward with a new plan for housing, including:

– First, repairing and reopening Regents and Normal halls, which opened in 2021 at a cost of $48 million, and tearing down Hilltopper Hall, which opened in 2018 at a cost of $40 million.

– Replacing Douglas Keen and Hugh Poland halls with 1,000 beds in new buildings on that site to complete the First Year Village.

– Then tearing down Gilbert, McCormack and Rodes Harlin halls in the Valley and building a 1,400-bed “upperclassman village” in the Valley and possibly other nearby locations.

Eventually, Caboni said, the university would address its largest dorm, Pearce-Ford Tower, a 27-story hall housing 857 beds that’s 55 years old.

Caboni said many of the current dorms put WKU at a “competitive disadvantage” with universities that have newer housing, and the proposal allows WKU to move away from dorms with community bathroom facilities to hotel- or suite-style halls or pod-style buildings such as Normal and Regents, which are more popular with today’s students.

Caboni said because of issues with the dorm halls and student expectations shifting away from communal style living, housing is in need of a “complete transformation.”

“This is a model that allows us to think differently and larger than we have before,” Caboni told the Herald.

WKU and the Student Life Foundation are working with a Washington, D.C., consulting firm Brailsford & Dunlavey to craft a plan for moving forward, including finding a private partner to build and run the new facilities. Julian Sagastume, a senior analyst for B&D, told regents the current five- to 10-year plan is still conceptual and can change depending on university-based and construction-based factors.

B&D vice president Ryan Jensen told the regents they are exploring partners with international expertise that B&D has worked with on similar plans and partnerships for other universities. Jensen also said they are still exploring payment options.

B&D’s services are being paid for by the Student Life Foundation, WKU spokesman Jace Lux said. Information about the foundation’s contract was not immediately available.

Caboni said in an interview that other universities that have entered into public-private partnerships for their housing include LSU and Eastern Michigan.

Jensen said such arrangements are “pretty common” and that more universities are looking into them.

“I know this is all very new to everybody,” regents Chair Currie Milliken said. “This is going to be an evolving process…”

“I think we’ve taken lemons and made lemonade,” Regent Melissa Dennison said. “This is the most optimistic thing I’ve heard about this situation.”