Proponents and opponents of the University’s plan to sell Westmoreland Apartments will speak at the University Senate meeting today at 3 p.m. in the EMU Fir Room. University President Dave Frohnmayer will also deliver his annual State of the University speech.
University Vice President for Administration and Finance Frances Dyke will speak about the possible apartment sale, accompanied by Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of University Housing Mike Eyster and Associate Dean of the Graduate School Marian Friestad.
Bing Li, chair of the Westmoreland Tenants Council, will outline the council’s reasons for opposing the sale.
University Senate Vice President and finance instructor Jeanne Wagenknecht hopes the senate discussion will be pointed and constructive. She said it’s important for the University to help the students who may be displaced if the 404-unit apartment complex is sold.
“I feel strongly that it’s in everybody’s best interest to watch out for those students,” Wagenknecht said. “Having been a student who made it through on my own scholarships and earned money and no (outside) support, I’m totally empathetic.”
Westmoreland has been valued at $15 million to $18 million. Two non-profit organizations – the Metropolitan Affordable Housing Corp. and the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County – have approached the University about buying the property.
Dyke told the Lane County Housing Policy Board at its meeting Monday that interested parties that are able to continue operating the apartments will be favored over other potential buyers.
Dyke said the information she will present to the senate will be equivalent to what was presented to the housing policy board and to the State Board of Higher Education at its Friday meeting, but she now knows more details about the task groups that have formed to aid Westmoreland tenants in the moves they may have to make depending on who buys the property.
Friestad and Eyster will head a group charged with finding ways to help student-tenants financially in their search for housing. Frohnmayer told the higher education board on Friday that some of the sale money could go toward helping tenants find new homes and that the UO Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to fundraising for the University, will contribute financially if needed.
Karen Logvin, work and family services administrator for University Human Resources, leads a group that is looking at ways to help the families with children who go to the Westmoreland Child Care Center and may have to find a new child care center if the property is sold.
The senate has still not heard from the University administrators about any government requests for information under the Patriot Act, as a motion that was passed in April 2004 requires. The senate is supposed to hear an update at the first meeting of the year, but University Senate President Peter Keyes said an oversight by the senate and the administration left it off the agenda. Keyes said the senate will hear from University General Counsel Melinda Grier at its Nov. 30 meeting about the act and anything that has happened with it regarding student information.
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