Campus Housing Consultants Launch Strategic Planning Service

• By Matt Jones
• 06/26/24

Scion Advisory Services recently launched its new Strategic Housing Planning Service, a cost-effective and collaborative process that provides colleges and universities with a method to align its student-housing offerings with its institutional mission, according to a news release. The service takes into account the needs, hurdles, and possibilities across a full campus housing system, as opposed to the single residential facility that tends to be the focus of many feasibility or demand studies.

“We created this option to go beyond the limitations of a traditional single-building feasibility study by providing a complete assessment of a campus housing program,” said Scion Advisory Services Senior Vice President Jay Pearlman. “Significantly, for an institution not needing a full facilities condition assessment or a design exercise, a Strategic Housing Plan can provide the value of a full housing master plan at a reduced cost and in a much shorter timeframe. Our team is ready and eager to serve the higher education community with these new customized consulting services.”

The planning walks colleges and universities through their responses to critical issues like whether the current housing program supports the institutional mission; how to improve existing facilities to support current students’ needs and anticipate future ones; how to address aging facilities; how to discuss the relationship between aging facilities and student experience to university leadership; how to prioritize buildings for renovations, decommissioning, and reconstruction; how these moves could impact departmental cash flow; and available strategies and financing options to pay for repair, replacement, and construction, according to the news release.

“The COVID-19 pandemic caused many campuses to rethink the role of residential life. The Strategic Housing Plan addresses a notable void in the market for student housing planning services,” said Pearlman. “Our approach has been shown effective at institutions concerned with current conditions of housing facilities or the quality of the student experience, or who are working to improve their competitive position among peer institutions or with the off-campus market. A Scion Strategic Housing Plan provides a framework for future housing investments and could serve as a key first step in evaluating the viability of alternative financing, including public-private partnerships.”