Greenville Tech wins campus housing

e-mail this story Related Online extra • Do two-year colleges such as Greenville Tech need on-campus housing?

The school sought the housing to accommodate students who commute long distances to take advantage of popular Tech programs for stretches of a year or less.

Campus housing will give students an option other than off-campus apartments that often require leases of a year. And it makes Greenville Tech a more attractive option for nearby students who want a communal college experience away from home.

"Any school that has such a high population of students coming in from a variety of places needs dorms," said Renita Estrich, a Tech student from Greenville.

Yolanda Brockman, an instructor for Introduction to Health Information Management at the school and a former student, said dorms are "all a part of the student experience to be able to live with other students, participate in study groups.

"My daughter is planning to go here next year, and she would love for them to have dorms."

No price has been set for the housing, which will initially accommodate 400 students in two- and four-bedroom style apartments paid for by the college's foundation, school officials said.

Sanford and Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom voted to try to stop the plan that the governor blasted as an example of unnecessary spending at a time when they said state government should be focused on meeting critical needs.

Even though the housing will be built and owned by the Greenville Tech Foundation, taxpayers could foot the bill for additional expenses as a result of the housing, Sanford said.

He called the decision a "remarkably bad precedent" that the state's other 15 technical colleges may follow.

Eckstrom said the request represented a "dramatic departure" for one of the state's two-year technical colleges. "It's a direction that represents higher costs going forward in operating these campuses if they make a move to look, smell, feel and taste just like the four-year campuses around the state."

Sanford chairs the State Budget and Control Board, which voted 3-2 Tuesday to approve student housing for Greenville Tech, only the second of the state's technical schools to win approval for student residences. Denmark Technical College in Bamberg County was the first.

A survey of 1,200 students showed 40 percent would consider using student housing, Greenville Tech officials reported. A market analysis authorized by the school this year showed there is a demand for up to 506 beds at a monthly cost of $350 to $425, officials said Tuesday.

But Sanford said the decision to start student housing is another example of state officials "backing into" spending issues that need more thought, especially in how such decisions fit the state's critical needs.

"If you ask me, I do think it's a gut-check issue on how serious Republicans are about limiting government," Sanford said. "And it's an issue that has nothing to do with new dorms for Greenville Tech but has everything to do with what we stand for as fiscal conservatives moving forward."

Voting for the Greenville Tech student housing Tuesday were state Treasurer Grady Patterson, a Democrat; Sen. Hugh Leatherman of Florence and Rep. Robert Harrell of Charleston, both Republicans.

The governor said Greenville students already have access to what he said is one of the highest apartment vacancy rates in the nation.

"What's disappointing is that we didn't even ask basic questions like 'Who's going to pay for the added cost of liability if a student gets hurt in one of these dorms?' or 'Who's going to pay for security in these dorms?' or 'Who's going to foot the bill if somebody catches meningitis in one of these dorms like what happened recently at USC?'" Sanford said.

"Sadly, the answer to most of these questions is the taxpayers of South Carolina," he said. "Sadder still was that we rushed to spend more money without even getting satisfactory answers to those questions."

Natalma "Tammi" McKnew, president of the Greenville Tech Foundation, said Sanford's questions apply even without student housing. She said the college needs housing to serve the large number of students who travel far to attend courses and don't stay a year.

"For people who live in Greenville, I don't expect them to move into student housing," she said. "But for people who come from different states for special programs, they might because they don't live here and they aren't likely to stay longer than the length of the program. For some of the programs, that might be six months."

Among the college's special programs that draw out-of-town students are automotive, dental hygiene, dental assisting and culinary arts courses, officials said.

Under the plan approved Tuesday, the college will lease about 9.5 acres of its Barton Campus land to the foundation through a subsidiary at a cost of $1 per year for 30 years. The cost of the housing is estimated to be between $12 million and $15 million to be paid for using tax-exempt, non-recourse bonds.

Officials said the college will have no legal or financial obligation.

Students won't be required to use the housing.

At least 100 apartments accommodating 400 students will be constructed in the first phase of the project, officials said. More units could be built depending on demand.

Eckstrom said he and Sanford believe more technical colleges will ask for permission to build housing. He said constructing student residences contradicts the need for so many community colleges and their satellite offices in so many areas of the state.