Trustees accept choices for UA dorm project
Posted on Friday, December 16, 2005
A $ 50. 4 million residence hall project for the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville received a final green light from trustees on Thursday, as they agreed to the selection of an architect and contractor but stressed the importance of keeping added costs to a minimum.
The planned two-building complex was originally announced in October, when the University of Arkansas board of trustees gave the campus approval to begin exploring steps to build the project. Some board members flew to Ames, Iowa, last week to tour a similar building in use at Iowa State University.
“I was rather impressed by what it does for the students,” board Chairman Charles Scharlau said of the Iowa residence hall. “The extra cost is worth it in the better retention rates and higher GPAs.”
UA administrators have said the 215, 000-square-foot complex is necessary to help them meet enrollment goals set forth in their plan for the year 2010. Under that plan the Fayetteville campus five years from now would have 22, 500 students including 3, 000 freshmen. This fall the campus reported an enrollment of 17, 821 to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
“I think if we’re truly going to be a student-oriented university, we need to have a residence hall that people want to live in rather than have to live in,” said trustee Stanley Reed of Marianna.
Like the Iowa facility, UA’s planned complex would have lots of rooms for studying and group project work. Trustees said the emphasis on academics was obvious in the project’s design.
But the complex’s price tag continued to raise trustees’ eyebrows Thursday.
Several questioned the university’s vice chancellor for finance and administration, Don Pederson, about ways to keep extra costs down.
“On each one of the subcontractor areas we’ll be able to select the low bid,” he said. “And I’ve heard the message form the board that we have to negotiate these fees so it’s cost-effective.”
The University of Arkansas System plans to lobby trustees in January to approve a bond issue to fund the project, scheduled to open to students by 2007.
But the housing-fee revenue that will be needed to pay off the bond debt won’t be enough each year.
About $ 333, 000 will have to be subsidized annually through the campus’s educational and general expenses operating budget, Pederson said.
“It’s extremely important that this come in under budget and finish on time,” said Scharlau, who is from Fayetteville.
Trustee John Ed Anthony of Hot Springs questioned whether raising the price students would pay to live in the new complex would generate more revenue.
“That’s hard to know,” said Randy Alexander, UA director of campus housing. “We felt like relative to the other projects we have, this is where we need to be.”
To allow for the possibility of more savings, the trustees agreed to a special arrangement in selecting an architect and contractor for the job.
The board agreed that Witsell Evans Rasco with Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas & AFHJ would likely be the design firm for the project. CDI Contractors LLC would likely build it.
But if administrators realize fees for those firms aren’t low enough during negotiations, the university can turn to a backup firm designated by the board with the approval of the system’s president, B. Alan Sugg.
Pederson said that he doesn’t believe that will be necessary.
“Based on what we know right now, we can bring it in on time,” he said.
Trustees warned UA administrators that they want more notice before being called to make decisions like the ones made Thursday. That meeting was called Tuesday afternoon.
The meeting was quickly organized so the process could get started and UA could try to meet the fall 2007 opening date, administrators said.
“I do not believe in shooting the messenger, Dr. Pederson,” Scharlau said. “But take the message back [to Chancellor John White ] that we would appreciate and look more favorably on projects where we have more lead time.”
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