Page 28 - College Planning & Management, June 2017

Business MANAGING HIGHER ED
Why Your Next Collaboration May Be a P3
Here are two examples of public-private partnerships that suggest it might be the best approach if you’re ready to add or replace campus housing.
BY ELLEN KOLLIE
THERE ARE TWO MAIN REASONS THAT PUBLIC- Private Partnerships (P3s) are gaining popularity on
the higher education campus. The first is that campus administrators desire to focus on their core mission, which is education, and understand that there are organizations that can provide supplemental services better than they provide them. The second is financial: there’s stress on the ability to access sufficient amounts of capital to meet goals and there’s downward pressure on the revenue streams that keep the institutions moving. And make no mistake: P3s are here to stay.
“Administrators are seeing the benefits of successful partner- ships,” says Tom Trubiana, president of Memphis-based EdR, a developer, owner and manager of collegiate housing communities. “These benefits include quicker project delivery, not having to staff up to deliver the project, the potential for lower operating costs and preserving their debt capacity for other purposes.” The question is whether you should be considering a P3 to deliver a supplemental
service — housing, specifically — to your campus.
Here are two vastly different projects demonstrating the power
of P3s. In the first, Detroit-based Wayne State University (WSU) administrators, who have no on-campus housing requirements for students, saw a need and desired to provide more housing on campus for any student needing it. In the second, University of Connecticut (UConn) administrators’ needs were to provide more off-campus housing combined with an urban downtown to attract and retain not only students but also faculty and staff.
Project Goals
WSU: At WSU, a 2010 housing study indicated an excess hous- ing demand, but administrators felt Detroit’s Midtown area could absorb that demand via off-campus housing. When conducted again in 2014, the study showed ongoing and increased demand, plus less availability of off-campus housing. “Midtown housing was becoming more family friendly and less student friendly,”
28 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / JUNE 2017
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