West Village Opens at Towson

670 freshman and sophomores at Towson University will move into the "5-star" grade of college housing this coming thursday, August 28. As part of the West Village complex, the Paca House and Tubman house are the first of a number of new residential buildings at Towson.

West Village is located between the Towson Run apartments and Millennium Hall. Rooms are configured in doubles, each with its own bathroom, two closets, A/C, a microfridge unit, expansive cable access, and carpet. On the hall, students have access to study rooms wireless internet and entertainment/community rooms with plasma TV's.

These two residential facilities are examples of the new wave of construction and funding of what are considered "auxiliary facilities" in higher education. State dollars can only be used to construct buildings directly related to the academic mission of a given university; in other words, state funds cannot be used to fund residential halls, dining facilities, some athletic facilities, and student activity centers. Additionally, the University System of Maryland is reluctant to allow universities to use deferred debt to fund such projects in order to maintain its stellar AA+ bond rating.

These facilities must be funded and constructed in creative manners. And so, many universities engage in "public-private" partnerships to construct such auxiliary facilities. The West Village complex is an example of such a partnership, in which a private company owns, constructs, and operates the management of the building. In this case, and many, the company is Capstone Management. The institution usually owns the land, but leases it out for a number of years (around 40) to the developer, and overtime, buys the property and infrastructure back. Financing for the project is often handled by MEDCO.

From the student side of things, they have RA's and many of the same resources and more available in these residential halls. Yet, they pay their rent to Capstone Management instead of Towson. And, sometimes the rates fluctuate, depending on the market value of the living arrangement.

These partnerships help universities respond quickly to market demands for new student housing, while not getting bogged down in the process of state funding and appropriations. I spoke with President Caret and other students, who have explained that Towson has a great relationship with Capstone.

Yet, with any partnership, there are growing pains and unexpected hurdles. Because higher education is moving in this direction, it is important that the hurdles are aired and discussed so that they can be avoided in the future. So, let me know what your experiences have been on your campus with Capstone or other private management groups.