U. may contract outside developer for grad housing

“[Hiring an outside developer] will disturb many of the fruitful ways that the current system accommodates the particular needs of Princeton graduate tenants,” Ben Schmidt GS said. “The idea of hiring a private developer is nothing more than [an] accounting trick to keep costs of construction off the books in hard times.”

But Director of Housing Andrew Kane defended the possible change in plans.

“Given the relatively high cost of renovating Hibben and Magie, it may be more cost effective to construct new housing on the other parts of the site than to proceed with a renovation,” Kane said in an e-mail, adding that a decision will be made after the University has assessed the feasibility of partnership with a developer.

If a developer cannot be found, however, the University plans to upgrade the fire and life-safety systems in Hibben-Magie to keep them active for at least another 10 years. Hibben would be renovated from September 2009 to fall 2011 and Magie from July 2010 to fall 2012, Kane added.

“Even if the buildings are renovated, the work will be limited in scope and the apartment will not be reconfigured,” Kane explained.

Several members of the Graduate Student Government (GSG) expressed concern at their meeting Wednesday night about the new plan and the possibility that involving an outside developer to build and rent apartments directly to graduate students would result in higher costs.

GSG press secretary Anne Twitty GS said she was worried the newly created apartments would be “another Lawrence.” Most GSG members agreed that the newer Lawrence Apartments, though higher quality than most of the other housing options, are hard to afford on a University stipend.

Still, since the Butler residences — the oldest of the apartment complexes — are considered “substandard housing,” GSG Facilities Committee co-chair Bill Zeller GS said the University would not consider postponing their destruction.

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“[The Butler] units cost a lot of money for the University to maintain,” Zeller explained. “They’re falling apart.”

Ultimately, many GSG members said they were most worried that an outside developer seeking to make a profit would not include the benefits that the University currently provides for graduate students, including rents well below standard market price and flexibility of rent termination due to graduation or other circumstances.

Many GSG representatives said they thought there was no need to upgrade the current quality of campus housing and that graduate students were more focused on maintaining low rents and adequate quantities of housing rather than on improving the current facilities.

“If we go down the path of building new buildings, we’re most certainly going to have to have some form of private contract,” GSG parliamentary secretary Kevin Collins GS said. “The question remains, do we really need to go down that path at all?”

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The University’s original plan involves renovating Hibben-Magie Apartments and changing residency requirements there from a mix of graduate students, faculty and staff to graduate students only. The initial plans to convert Stanworth Apartments from faculty and staff housing to graduate student housing and to demolish Butler Apartments will go forward as planned.

Though graduate students have been dissatisfied by a shortage of University housing in past years, the percentage of graduate students who have campus residences may decline further over the next three years.

Currently, 78 percent of current graduate students have campus housing. The University has said it will guarantee housing for only 70 percent of graduate students during the planned construction and renovation process.

Because the University prioritizes graduate student housing, about one-third of the faculty and staff housing — roughly 200 units — will be cut to maintain the 70 percent level for graduate students during the Butler demolition.

The University is offering alternate housing and will pay for relocation fees for eligible current faculty and staff residents, Kane said, adding that residents may also find new housing on their own, through other existing University systems or outside sources.

Schmidt criticized the University’s decision as inconsiderate of graduate student needs.

“The need to build better housing — as opposed to the need to build more housing, which [the University continues] to ignore in this [new] plan — for graduate students has always been questionable,” Schmidt said.