A $400K study will examine how UMaine could fix outdated campus housing

The University of Maine is spending around $400,000 on a housing study to create a plan for upgrading aging residence halls and potentially building new student housing at its Orono and Machias campuses.

Outdated campus housing and strong feedback from students about modernizing it prompted the study, which three firms are leading and are likely to wrap up in mid-October. It will create a plan for what housing at the university will look like over the next 10 years.

The plan will outline which residence halls to renovate and whether to build new ones, including housing for nontraditional students, like those with families, said Kelly Sparks, UMaine’s chief business officer and vice president for finance and administration. The study will also produce a financing strategy.

UMaine has about $190 million built into its capital plan for renovations and construction of new housing over the course of 10 years, she said.

The newest residence halls on UMaine’s campus were built in the 1990s, and the average age is 64 years old, Sparks said.

The Orono campus has 17 residence halls and two buildings that house apartment or suite-style living. There are 3,231 undergraduates living at those buildings, according to fall enrollment figures. About a mile from campus is University Park , a housing community for graduate students and those with families that will be part of the study. Sparks said 120 graduate students live there and at Stodder Hall.

The Machias campus has 112 students living at two residence halls, Sparks said.

With enrollment is down at UMaine’s Orono and Machias campuses, modernizing housing is also important for attracting prospective students, she said.

“When they’re looking at universities, they’re looking for housing as a part of the overall package,” Sparks said.

The university has hired Hanbury, a Virginia-based architect; Gordian, a South Carolina-based consultant that will assess campus facilities; and the Scion Group, which is headquartered in Chicago and advises colleges on campus housing, to complete the study.

The team is being paid $395,000, plus travel expenses, for the study, and its work began about two weeks ago, Sparks said.

The study will ask students, resident assistants, the facilities team and others about campus housing and how to meet their needs. It will also research what housing is available and how much it costs in Orono, Old Town and surrounding towns, which Sparks said could influence potential new housing on campus.

The study will give recommendations for renovating Hancock Hall, a residence hall in Orono where single-user bathrooms are currently being installed. With work underway there, it makes sense to use the building as a test for future improvements elsewhere on campus, Sparks said.