Housing Office combines

Residential Living will centralize its services to one office in order to make the department more efficient and serviceable for students, a department official said Tuesday. Jim Newswanger, assistant to the director of residential living, said that over the next two years, Residential Living plans to put the main functions of its branch offices into one central office, tentatively to be located in High Rise East. Currently North, South, and West campuses each have their own offices that contain all the services that Residential Living provides. Under the new plan, all the services will be located in one office. The move, which will begin this fall, is part of a strategy to provide "better service to students" in a way that is "more cost effective," said Newswanger. He said the first area to be consolidated will be student services such as security and maintenance. Deputy Vice Provost George Koval said yesterday that this initial phase of the plan, which was approved two months ago, is the only one finalized so far. He said this organizational change is the only way to "maximize efficiency and better services" in on-campus residences without spending more money. "[We are] not going to save anything, just maximize funding," he said. Koval added that the proposed state budget cuts to the University would not affect Residential Living's funding since its money comes from collected rent. However, he added that two of the factors contributing to the belt-tightening include the low occupancy rate in the dormitories and the fact that no jobs will be lost in the reorganization. With the main organs of the area offices going to a central location, Koval said there will be only "skeleton representation" left to act as a liason to the other areas of Residential Living. Koval said that while Residential Living plans to open the office in High Rise East, it may be located in High Rise North where the present Residential Living office is located.

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