STUDENT HOUSING
Housing is a critical support function for most colleges and universities, with significant implications for recruiting and retaining students, faculty and staff. For students, the concerns are about comfort, convenience, community and computing. For faculty and staff, key concerns are affordability and the ability to live reasonably close to campus in intellectually vibrant, culturally stimulating communities. Biddison Hier, Ltd. offers a range of services that assist institutions in addressing their housing needs, including:

• Market Research: definition of student, faculty and staff housing needs, and quantification of demand, price points, and preferences
• Benchmarking: competitive analysis vis-a-vis peer institutions and best practices in the industry to assist the institution in playing to its strengths to enhance recruitment and retention
• Comprehensive Housing Planning: development of long-term housing master plans that provide a roadmap, phasing and funding strategies to modernize and upgrade housing, create / reconfigure program space, and add housing and campus amenities to enhance the quality of residential life
• Housing Affordability Programs: identification of need for and preferred types of housing assistance; identification and evaluation of assistance programs; financial modeling to quantify impact on institutional resources and costs / benefits to the recipient
• Financial / Economic Modeling: economic modeling to project financial implications and identify funding requirements to support housing development (renovation and / or new construction) and assistance programs
• Privatization: identification of privatization options, costs and benefits to the university, and evaluation of privatization opportunities (RFP / RFQ development, evaluation of developer proposals, deal analysis).

Over the past decade, Biddison Hier, Ltd., has assisted institutions in developing comprehensive master plans for student housing; planning new multi-market housing to serve students, faculty and staff; providing counsel on the development of faculty / staff housing assistance programs; and structuring partnerships with private sector players to leverage university resources in creating housing opportunities. Our work has yielded specific, implementable solutions such as:

• Revamping of student housing to create a better match between unit types, student demographics and program goals for learning communities
• Addition of new campus amenities (e.g., technology centers, coffee bars, "Main Street" retail) to revitalize campuses as centers of intellectual life
• Capital improvements to modernize student housing, correct ADA and life safety problems and renovate / reconfigure existing spaces to be more competitive for today's and tomorrow's students
• Identification of faculty / staff preferences for housing assistance (bricks and mortar vs. financial); financial assistance programs to address for-sale and rental housing preferences; and quantification of institutional costs, immediate and long-term to sustain assistance programs

Student Housing Case Studies
To see a list of schools and their case studies, click here.