The Faculty Senate learned about the benefits and concerns surrounding WKU’s public-private dorm partnership Thursday afternoon.
Faculty Regent Shane Spiller, management professor, said the Board of Regents Executive Committee approved a pre-development housing agreement Thursday morning with Gilbane, an international real-estate firm based in Rhode Island. The private company would manage WKU’s current and future dorms.
Spiller said this is not a final agreement, but instead an “agreement to work on an agreement.” It’s a preliminary agreement, meaning WKU can pull out of the agreement with a cost penalty of $5.8 million.
Julian Sagastume, a senior analyst for consulting firm Brailsford & Dunlavey, said at the Board of Regents meeting that the initial investment into the new housing plan will be “north of 300 million.”
Spiller said this would be the “largest financial bill in WKU history” if the university goes through with the agreement. He said it will be “incredibly transformative” for the university.
Spiller said many of the risks he’s worried about financially will happen whether WKU enters this partnership or not.
Spiller said improving WKU’s housing will better leverage the university and its facilities for prospective students. He said improving the residential facilities can help prepare the university for any future developments.
Spiller said WKU is working to make sure that this partnership won’t take away money from other areas of the university for these projects. He also said they want to make sure the university isn’t entering a partnership with a firm with a “profit-driven center,” which could end up putting the university in a bad place financially.
Spiller said this isn’t the case with the current pre-development agreement. WKU also won’t have to commit any money toward the firm going into the agreement, Spiller said.
“It actually takes no commitment from WKU on the budget,” Spiller said. “It takes none of our money going in.”
Provost Robert “Bud” Fischer said a Ph.D. Committee will be formed in January to determine the next Ph.D.s at WKU. There will also be a Global Learning and International Affairs Committee created to figure out how to move forward with recruiting international students on campus.
“We all know that at one point, there were huge numbers of international students on this campus,” Fischer said. “We would love to have them back, but we are in a difficult time, and we need to think of new ways and ideas of how to move forward.”
The Faculty Senate also endorsed two actions passed by the Student Government Association. The resolutions support an administrative commitment to establish and maintain an accessible 24-hour space on campus, and the installation of a drinking water dispenser, printers and computers within residence halls.
Sophomore Senator Jakob Barker, mathematical economics major, authored the two resolutions that the Student Government Association brought to the Faculty Senate for endorsement.
Barker said that in discussions for this resolution, a lot of facilities have pointed out that the dorms are too old to install water fountains in, or that the buildings will be torn down in a few years anyway.
“I don’t think that excuses the fact that there are students growing up in these dorms and spend their time there, and they still don’t have access to this currently,” Barker told the Faculty Senate.
Barker said the SGA will provide containers of water in residence halls as a simple solution to provide water to anyone who needs it at night.
Fischer also said that the university has already found computers to set up in residence halls for the 24-hour spaces. Fischer and Barker are working together toward hopefully having these amenities accessible in the spring.
“Something that’s really important is that these changes take a lot of time, a lot of money,” Barker said. “So, we’re focusing on low-cost solutions that can make short-term gains while those improvements and those refreshments are made to residence halls.”
