The University faces a $98 million price tag in deferred maintenance costs, according to a recent study.
The seven Oregon University System schools collectively have accrued $420 million in deferred maintenance costs, with the University holding the second-highest tab to Oregon State University’s $131 million. Lynda Swanson, director of capital construction planning for the Oregon University System, said the common thread tying this state-wide problem is lack of funding to carry out needed repairs.
The deferred maintenance cost is the price of facilities that need replacement, some of which have needed replacement for more than 10 years. The results of the study were presented to a Board of Higher Education committee in March.
George Hecht, director of University Facilities Services, said of this general problem universities face, “We’re better at building things than we are at maintaining them.”
Facilities Services is in charge of maintaining the University’s 3 million square feet of building space, but the department does not have the funding to replace all of the items on which maintenance has been deferred.
“The greatest problem we have on campus is that our classrooms are in an old, dilapidated condition,” Hecht said.
Hecht said funding for maintenance is difficult to come by because potential donors have the expectation that building maintenance is the state’s responsibility.
Swanson said, for example, it is difficult to raise money for a new electrical system, but it is easier to raise money for scholarship programs or a new building.
“This is an unglamorous problem,” Swanson said of raising money for maintenance. “The big push has been to cope with having one of the most underfunded (university) systems.
“The fundamental problem is that higher education has been underfunded for years.”
Buildings across campus are feeling the crunch. Despite the Knight Library’s expansion and renovation in the early 1990s, the library still has about $11,102,000 in deferred maintenance costs.
Andrew Bonamici, building manager for the library, said the building has a number of problems, but the most pressing issue now is figuring out a way to replace the carpets, which are, in certain areas, held together with duct tape.
Cobwebs on windows have also attracted dust and created a greater need for window washing services, he said.
Just before the passage of Oregon Ballot Measure 5 in 1994, plans were in the works for additional custodial positions at the library, but those positions were cut before they were filled. The 154,447 square foot building has only a handful of janitors to clean it each day, Bonamici said.
Individual colleges and non-academic departments have their own fund-raising efforts. For example, the University Museum of Art expects to complete an aggressive $12 million fund-raising campaign by the end of the year for a major expansion.
The museum is now $2,123,000 behind in maintenance costs, about 2 percent of the total for the University.
Additional efforts include submitting a proposal to the Board of Education this summer to ask the Legislature for more money in the capital budget to maintain school facilities at all levels of education, Swanson said.
“I’m hoping to have a long-term strategy,” she said. Swanson said she also hopes the deferred maintenance costs will be cut in half over the next 10 years.
Swanson and Hecht agreed that if nothing is done to lower the statewide deferred maintenance price tag, it will continue to grow and be far more expensive to remedy in the future.
“You’re going to pay now, or much more in the future,” Hecht said.
The problem has also expanded since the number of classrooms and colleges increased to accommodate the growing number of students after the 1950s baby boom.
Given the limited funding, Bonamici said Facilities Services does what it can, responding to emergencies and carrying out two to three major classroom remodelings per year.
They also recently finished a major roof repair project. Hecht said some of the buildings’ roofs were in bad shape, leading to more costly damage. He said the leaks in Chiles Business Center were so bad that children’s wading pools were used instead of buckets to catch the falling water.
“We’ve cured most of the leaking roofs,” Hecht said.
Bonamici said the Facilities Services workers do a good job, but money is always an issue.
“They are doing a fantastic job considering what they have,” he said.