PORTLAND – The University will continue planning the sale of the Westmoreland Apartments and will report to the State Board of Higher Education at its January meeting about the progress made to mitigate the effects selling the property could have on the 592 people who live there.
Though no formal vote was taken Friday morning when the University asked the board for permission to sell, board members voiced their approval on the condition that University officials continue their efforts to help the potentially displaced tenants and keep the board informed of any progress made.
Those efforts could include helping current tenants finance their moves with money from the sale or money from the UO Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to fundraising for the University.
The board must formally approve the final sale of the property.
About 20 University students attended the meeting to demonstrate their opposition to the possible sale.
Board meetings allow for public comment at the end of each meeting, but this meeting’s comment period was moved forward to allow students to speak after University President Dave Frohnmayer proposed the plans to sell.
When making the proposal, Frohnmayer urged board members not to postpone approving the University’s request to proceed with the sale as students and lawmakers have demanded.
“With all due respect, I urge you not to heed that command,” Frohnmayer said.
He said the University is working hard to address the student concerns about the possible sale and needs as much time as possible to do so.
Two University task groups were formed recently to find ways of helping families who won’t be able to use the Westmoreland Child Care Center if the property is sold and to find ways to help tenants in their searches for affordable housing. The University will form either a third group or a sub-group to specifically address the needs of international students.
Also, Frohnmayer said showing reluctance in approving the sale “would delay marketplace interest” by sending the message to buyers that the sale is not secure.
The real estate market
Frohnmayer said after the meeting that several potential buyers have come forward in the past few days. He would not say who, but he did confirm that one was a non-profit organization interested in low-income housing.
When presenting the University’s proposal to sell the property, Frohnmayer cited the need to improve the residence halls and the need to be able to buy property closer to the University as the “once-a-century” opportunities arise.
He cited the UO Foundation’s purchase of the vacant Joe Romania car lot east of the University-owned Williams’ Bakery site on Franklin Boulevard as an example. Had it not been for the foundation, the property may have been sold to another buyer because the University did not have sufficient funds for the purchase and would have to go through an extensive process to secure bonds, Frohnmayer said.
“We cannot afford to be that un-nimble in this kind of market,” Frohnmayer said.
Frohnmayer said after the meeting that he hopes to build a land bank in the east campus neighborhood along Franklin Boulevard that will serve as the legacy of his administration.
“It’s my dream,” he said.
Financial factors
Frohnmayer told the board that the University will be helping Westmoreland tenants financially in their search for different housing, though he emphasized that such a search may not be necessary if the buyer of the property continues to operate the apartments.
“We will be prepared to make some portion of the sale proceeds – if it should sell – available in order to mitigate the financial need,” Frohnmayer said. The Westmoreland property has been valued at $15 million to $18 million.
Julian Catchen, president of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, stood when Frohnmayer mentioned possible tuition waivers for international students who may be displaced if the property sells and said they already get free tuition.
All graduate teaching fellows receive free tuition as a partial payment for their work duties.
“You’re allowing the University to testify again and again,” Catchen told the board as members told him he had already had his chance to speak and ordered him to sit down.
During his testimony, Catchen criticized the University for not involving students until after the decision to try to sell the property was made.
“The University has been rushing this issue from the beginning, and the beginning was two weeks ago,” Catchen said.
Catchen expressed concern that no one from the University has said what exactly the sale money will purchase, saying he fears it will be used “for something completely unrelated to housing,” such as property for the basketball arena the University hopes to build.
The negative effects the closing of Westmoreland will have on the people who live there is not worth any future property purchase, he said.
Frohnmayer told the board that the sale has nothing to do with the arena, which, if built, will be paid for by private donations to the
Athletics Department.
University officials say that parcels of property surrounding Williams’ Bakery, the site for the potential area, will be purchased if an arena is built.
Frohnmayer said after the meeting that the University will not seek out those properties until it is definite that a sports arena will be built because condemnation is an act of last resort. But if the current owners offer them for sale, the University will jump at the chance to purchase them, he said.
Senior Vice President and Provost John Moseley said in an interview Oct. 26 that the parcels of property, which include a 7-Eleven store and a dentist’s office, have been estimated to cost about $2 million.
International students
Catchen said 150 of the University’s 1,350 GTFs live at Westmoreland and that no community in Eugene has as much ethnic and cultural diversity.
Graduate student Joe Christison berated the University for botching the number of international students who hold leases at Westmoreland when officials first announced their hopes to sell the property.
“Is it lies or are they really just as ignorant as they appear?” he said to the board.
An Oct. 20 news release said 25 international students hold leases at Westmoreland. The University has since concluded that the number is actually 87.
University Housing supplied the original number. University Vice President for Finance and Administration Frances Dyke and Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of University Housing Mike Eyster realized the number was probably wrong after tenants challenged it during a meeting Oct. 26. The Office of Institutional Research checked every leaseholders’ official record to come up with the new number.

GTF Darlene Hampton told the board that the Chinese Students and Scholars Association claims 80 percent of its members live at Westmoreland.
Lawmakers get involved
Numerous city, county and state officials have written letters to the University and to the board criticizing the University’s process for pitching the sale and questioning how the University will help the hundreds of students who could be displaced.
Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, wrote a letter to the board on Thursday asking that it require the University “to develop a plan that will ensure that there will be sufficient affordable family housing available.”
Lane County Commissioner Bill Dwyer, Eugene City Councilor Bonny Bettman and Sen. Bill Morrisette, D-Springfield, submitted let
ters stating similar concerns.
Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Eugene, spoke during the public comment section of the meeting, saying that as long as the board was confident the University was taking the necessary steps to help tenants who may be displaced, he does not object to the University moving forward with plans to sell.
Lane County Commissione
r and Democratic candidate for governor Pete Sorenson arrived near the end of the meeting and spoke with students about their concerns and about what can be done. He will be writing a letter to the board within the next few days, he said.
“My first observation is the process really stinks,” Sorenson told students. “It’s really unfair.”
Sorenson hopes to set up a meeting between University officials, students and government officials to discuss the possible sale and allow students a chance to further discuss their concerns.
“They heard from you today one time,” Sorenson told students. “We’re not done.”
Board, student reactions
Though higher education board members questioned the University’s efforts to help students find other housing as inexpensive as Westmoreland, no one overtly objected to the University’s desire to sell the west Eugene property in order to buy property adjacent to the campus.
“This is an entirely rational and reasonable proposal,” board member Howard Sohn said.
ASUO President Adam Walsh, an Oregon Student Association board member, spoke about the possible Westmoreland sale during OSA’s allotted speaking time and said afterward he was pleased board members spent time questioning the process for pitching the sale and demanding more be done to help tenants who may be forced to move.
“It’s nice that this wasn’t some sort of rubber stamp process,” Walsh said.
Residence Hall Association President Todd Mann said though the meeting’s outcome definitely wasn’t ideal, it was encouraging to hear board members show skepticism about the overall proposal.
“If we grab a hold of that, I think there is potential to make the case for Westmoreland,” Mann said.

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