American Campus Communities said the integration of ACC-run dorms and programs at UNM would be seamless, but one UNM housing official said the term “seamless transition” was used only to keep up appearances.
“The University is working with ACC to most effectively make it appear seamless for students, and really that’s all, an appearance,” Interim Director of Student Housing Brian Ward said. “We’re trying to educate them about the different processes which would take place if you either wanted to live on campus or in ACC, or if you wanted to work in ACC or on campus, because they are very separate.”
In a November 2010 meeting with ACC representatives, UNM Residence Life representatives expressed concerns about who would manage ACC’s buildings and whether UNM Res Life employees would be out of their jobs as a result of the transition.
Residence Hall Association representative Amir Chapel said at that meeting that he was worried that ACC’s management team would take over the RHA.
“There’s this scenario where ACC comes onto the campus and initially manages a building or a few buildings and then, over time, they take over the whole housing community,” he said. “Now ACC has their foothold here, and there is a possibility that they could spread and just take over all of Residence Life, as we know it today.”
Associate Director of Student Housing Ruth Stoddard said that when ACC’s latest project, Casas Del Rio, opens on main campus in August 2012, it will, along with Lobo Village, be managed by ACC.
UNM will manage Hokona, Laguna/Devargas, Santa Clara, Alvarado, Coronado, Redondo Village Apartments and the SRC apartments, as well as the student family housing on Buena Vista Road.
The ACC has tentative plans to demolish Coronado, Alvarado and Onate Halls, as well as La Posada dining hall, and build communities that will house up to 2,100 beds.
Walt Miller, associate vice president for Student Life, said at that meeting that the University had no intention of eradicating RHA, but hadn’t figured out what the management structure for ACC dorms would be.
Ward said the terms of the ACC contract weren’t explained very well originally, and it was believed that the transition would be seamless, with one contract and shared assignment functions.
“They can’t do that because that would imply it’s University housing. The minute someone says that, it would change how crediting agencies would look at the University, and the University can’t afford that,” he said.
Ward also voiced concerns about the amount of control ACC has.
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“They have things in their contract that … let’s say we had a lot of demand and I wanted to build a new building. I can’t do it without ACC approving it,” he said. “We can’t build competitive housing that hurts their product.”
Stoddard said Res Life is one of the biggest on-campus employers of students.
Financial consequences, Ward said, would include hiring fewer RAs, fewer custodians, fewer maintenance workers and office staff.
“Unless more people just decide to live on campus, for every building that they (ACC) build, we’re competing for the same students. We’re in big trouble,” he said. “If we have 200 empty beds, that’s a million dollars.”
Stoddard also said staff reductions are a possibility, and that the division was looking at how they could cut costs without sacrificing services. She said that when Casas Del Rio opens next year, levels of maintenance workers and custodial staff would have to be evaluated based on occupancy.
“We just don’t have the revenue, the cash that we had when all our beds were full,” Ward said.
Stoddard said she thinks ACC’s growing presence will emphasize the student focus of UNM Res Life, which she said is hard to come by with privatization.
Isaac Romero, ASUNM Housing Committee chairman, said at a Senate meeting Nov. 16 that it is now clear ACC’s residence programs and UNM’s Res Life will be two separate entities. Students applying to be resident advisers must choose to apply either through UNM, to work in existing student dorms, or through ACC, to work in new ACC dorms such as Lobo Village and Casas Del Rio. Students must go through separate application processes based on whether they want to work for ACC or UNM Res Life.
Romero also said that Res Life employees would not be able to use ACC facilities to program events, and ACC employees would likewise be unable to use Res Life facilities.
Ward compared the ACC facilities to an independent, off-campus apartment complex built on campus.
“There’s no shared paperwork, contract or leasing. We have all different arrangements and agreements,” he said.
He said the separation is a contractual issue because the University chose not to spend its own money on the new dorms, instead hiring ACC to fund and run the buildings.
Stoddard said compensation will be different between ACC and UNM, another reason for the break.
“The RAs will be compensated differently with UNM Residence Life and Student Housing, as they would with (ACC),” she said. “Based upon compensation, you can’t just put everybody into a candidate pool and decide where they’re going to live. That’s a very crucial part of the puzzle.”
Stoddard said that Res Life compensation includes a free room, $975 toward an on-campus meal plan, and $2,700 for the academic year, which is about a $300 paycheck per month. ACC representatives refused to comment and did not respond to requests for comment on wages and compensation for their student RAs.
