October 8, 2003 -- The Board of Visitors’ Student Affairs and Athletics Committee on Thursday opened what chairman Thomas F. Farrell II expects to be a months-long discussion of student housing — a discussion prompted largely by a contractor’s mistake more than three decades ago.

A few years ago, during routine inspections of the Alderman Road first-year dormitories, University Housing officials found that flakes were falling from the ceilings. Puzzled, they called in a consultant to investigate, explained Mark Doherty, the University’s chief housing officer, recently.

The findings: Many of the pours of the structural concrete for the dorms — built during a time of rapid enrollment growth in the late 1960s and ’70s — were done in cold weather, and the contractor added chloride to keep the water in the mix from freezing before the concrete set, he said.

The concrete set properly, but over the long term, chloride is corrosive to metal. Unfortunately, there is a lot of metal encased in that concrete, from plumbing to electrical conduits to reinforcement bars, he said.

There is no danger to students, Doherty stressed. But the need to extensively renovate or replace 11 dormitories, representing about 1,400 beds — more than 20 percent of U.Va.’s overall housing stock — plus the University’s projected enrollment growth, provides an opportunity to discuss the University’s overall future housing goals.

"Up until now, we have addressed one building at a time, one problem at a time," Yoke San Reynolds, U.Va.’s vice president for finance, said in a recent interview. "This is a good time for us to be talking through what U.Va.’s vision is."

Reynolds is working with other University administrators and Board of Visitors members to examine the University’s housing plans, and made an initial presentation to the committee last week.

As an auxiliary enterprise, University Housing receives no state funds, and generally must finance any capital projects through reserves and revenue bonds. Using financial and enrollment projections, Reynolds told board members that over the next decade, the University will be able to afford renovating between 1,700 and 2,000 beds or constructing between 850 and 1,000 new ones, or some combination of renovation and construction.

The housing discussion goes well beyond bodies and beds.

"It’s not simply a matter of what sites look best and how we want to configure the rooms," University President John T. Casteen III said. "There are other factors we want to look at."

He stressed the need to examine studies of housing practices here and elsewhere and how they affect student life. He noted that when large-scale coeducation began at U.Va. in the early 1970s, the presumption was that the sexes would be strictly segregated — until research found that students produced better academic results in a more mixed environment.

Reynolds outlined several factors affecting student housing decisions, including enrollment; University housing rules, which are generally stricter than those found off Grounds; the off-Grounds housing market, which Casteen described as having a large surplus; academic and social programming; customer and stakeholder preferences; the condition of current facilities; and the available financial resources.

The University requires first-year students to live on Grounds. After that, students must decide between applying for University housing or living off Grounds.

On-Grounds housing offers proximity, security, academic and social programming, shorter leases and lower prices, Reynolds said. Residents have less privacy, however, and more rules to follow.

Shortly after the school year begins, local landlords begin to press students to sign leases for the next academic year, Casteen told board members, creating a panic among students that they will be left out in the cold.

"This year, in particular, a lot of people signed leases on places that were simply blueprints," he said. At least two local apartment complexes were not completed by the opening of the academic year.

Uncertainty about obtaining University housing compounds that pressure. The application process for next year does not begin until November, with room selection beginning in January and contracts due in February. Although 90 percent of undergraduate applicants for upper-class housing last year were accommodated, many students don’t want to wait that long.

As a first step, Casteen said he would like to speed up the University Housing application process.

Farrell said he hopes the housing discussion would come to some conclusion by the end of the academic year.

In other business, the Student Affairs and Athletics Committee:

• Heard a report from Craig Littlepage, athletics director, that fund raising was on target to fully fund all NCAA-allowable athletic scholarships by the 2005-06 academic year;

• Heard from Ryan Ewalt, president of the Inter-Fraternity Council, and Carey Mignerey, chairman of the Honor Committee, on their respective organizations’ goals for the current year.