Preliminary Planning for The East Campus Graduate and Medical Student Housing Project

January 27, 2003

Building UCSD Graduate Student Housing Today for Tomorrow

History of UCSD Affiliated Graduate Housing
Coast Apartments were built in the late 1960’s. North, Central and South Mesa were brought on line between 1974 and 1980. Finally, the Single Graduate Apartments came on line in 1996. Throughout this period, one of the primary goals of Housing and Dining Services (HDS) has been to keep the rents as low as possible. Over the past decade the rental rates for these apartments have been significantly below the outside private market. External market rates over the last two years have escalated dramatically and at the same time enrollments at UCSD have grown. These two factors have resulted in an increased demand for on campus housing by graduate and medical students. Both of these factors will continue. The result will be more demand for on campus housing, larger waiting lists, and longer wait times for available apartments. The lack of affordable on-campus housing has taxed the budgets of continuing students and has become a negative factor in the recruitment of graduate students to the University.

In the past several years, the Housing and Dining Services (HDS) has worked closely with Office of Graduate Studies and Research (OGSR) and a number of other departments on campus to determine how to best meet graduate student housing needs. As an outcome of these discussions, an Ad Hoc Committee comprised of staff and students from various areas of the campus was convened in Fall 2002 to review options for building additional housing on the dedicated six acre East Campus Housing site.

The committee discussed core values associated with density, services, and amenities. A series of models were developed to identify costs of building various projects and costs to operate the projects. Initially consideration was given to a stand-alone project with the rents of these residents covering all costs. Once these costs were loaded into a financial model it was clear to the committee that the resulting rental rates this plan required were not affordable.

Committee Recommendation
A financial model was developed to show how costs could be spread over all graduate housing rental rates at Mesa, Coast and Single Graduate Apartments. With this information the Ad Hoc Committee recommended a project for building 1,000 additional beds plus 1,000 parking places. The units would be two bedroom, one-bath apartments with minimal amenities to keep costs down. While two bedroom units may not be the most cost effective to build, this type unit was considered preferable to larger units with three and four bedrooms. Units would be approximately the size of the existing North Mesa apartments. To provide one parking space for each bedroom, some below ground spaces must be built which increases the project cost. In discussing the many unit type options, the committee agreed that each person should have a private bedroom, and that the optimum living arrangement for graduate students is two occupants to an apartment. One bath was determined to be cost efficient although two bath units may be considered more appropriate for the graduate student population. Studios and one-bedroom units were examined but the required rental rates were considered to be too expensive. Three and four bedroom units were also considered. Although they were more cost effective, the committee felt that these would be less desirable. In consideration of cost, the only amenities planned beyond what Mesa housing now has would be access to data and cable TV service. The structure would probably be four stories. Parking for this project will be financed and built as part of the loan with costs borne by all residents.

Possible rental rates for Fall 2006
These rents were presented to the Ad Hoc Committee based on estimated costs of construction, financing costs, and operating costs. They have been adjusted for annual inflation. These base rate figures are not meant to be predictive of the exact rents as any of the assumptions may change over the course of the construction period.

These rates are presented for discussion and represent a picture of the range of what rates might look like. A change to a Fall 2007 opening date could also affect the rates up or down.

Housing Units

Increased rents now
Planning for the recommended project will commence soon and there are immediate costs that will be incurred such as architectural fees, various site evaluations and many other costs that will be incurred as part of the design and construction of the project. The increased rents will cover these costs. Current rents, and any rents set in the future are based on the debt service (mortgage payments), all operational costs of existing facilities, and maintenance/capital improvements funding to provide large scale improvements to the existing units as they age. Once rents are at a level sufficient to cover these items, future rents will only need to include inflationary increases on projected operating costs and any changes in levels of service that the student residents request and support.

By the charter at UCSD and within the UC system as a whole, housing and dining is considered an auxiliary enterprise that must fund 100% of its costs through its customers. HDS is required to operate a housing program that recovers all operating costs, funds our debt service payments and also maintains a reasonable and prudent capital reserve for maintenance and future renovation of existing facilities.

Graduate Student Input and the Building Advisory Committee
The construction cost of this project is estimated to be $78.0 million dollars. This figure includes the cost of design and construction of both the planned units and parking. HDS will establish a small work group to begin the process of identifying additional basic project information about the site, units, operational needs, and incorporation into the overall community. Once the project better clarified, HDS will move forward to formally request UCSD to establish a Building Advisory Committee (BAC). The Building Advisory Committee will be comprised of representatives from the Graduate Student Association, Housing Advisory Council, Office of Graduate Studies and Research, Academic Senate, Committee on Campus/Community Planning, HDS, Facilities Design and Construction, Capital Planning, and Physical Planning.

A modified design/build process will be used. This approach differs from other bidding processes in that there is a set dollar figure established first. Teams of architects and builders submit proposals for the number of units, arrangement of units, and overall project design that fits within the cost limit. Through a competitive review process the BAC selects the proposal that best meets the campus need. Finally, the BAC has oversight over the preparation of project documentation and justification required for approval by the UC Office of the President.

There will be opportunities throughout this process for graduate students and the campus community to provide input into the design, operating policies, and procedures.

Contacts

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