Student Housing Business is the voice of the student housing industry.
Issue link: https://studenthousingbusiness.epubxp.com/i/783396
VIE W FROM THE ACADEME January/February 2017 StudentHousingBusiness.com 38 hall through the public-private partnership; we broke ground in December, and that will be done by August 2018. We're working on the Isenberg expansion school, as I said, at Amherst, and we're finish- ing up a science-marine building for the Dartmouth campus, which is a $45 million project. That's an innovative partnership, which is going to allow us to educate more students in that area right on the coast. We're renovating some academic buildings in Lowell; we just finished 12 new buildings in Lowell, and they'll need a new housing building, which we're going to start planning for now. As I said earlier, the Lowell cam- pus is at about 4,000 beds. Lowell was a commuter school and when President Meehan, who was the chancellor of Lowell at the time, arrived there nine years ago, he really focused on student life and student success and largely increased the housing stock and gave it more of a campus feel. He put forth great effort to invest in the campus. To stay competitive, we really need to invest in our assets and maintain our assets. SHB: How big is the staff of the Building Authority? Filippone: We're staffed at about 15 people — we finance and over- see all of the payments on all of the construction; maintain all of the tax exempt bond requirements; and oversee the project managers that we hire for each of the projects. We also outsource specific needs, as they arise, for various projects through consulting. SHB: Who does the Building Authority report to? Filippone: We have our own board. I report to the chairman of the UMass Building Authority Board. Our board is made up of 11 members. Five members are also University of Massachusetts Board of Trustee members appointed by the governor; the other six mem- bers are not. Through my board, I work in collaboration with the president's office to support the needs of the university. SHB: You have a bit of a differ- ent background from most of the people we interview for View from the Academe. What has been your career path? Filippone: I have a degree in accounting and business adminis- tration from Babson College and I am a certified public accoun- tant. After working in public accounting, I went to work for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which is a quasi-state agency in Massachusetts. At the time, it was embarking on a $3 billion project to clean the Boston Harbor and construct a sewage treatment plant. That's really where I got my background in public finance and overseeing construc- tion. I was there for about 12 years and left as the CFO. Then, I went to work at Harvard University. Harvard was expanding its cam- pus from Cambridge into Allston. From there, I went to the Broad Institute to work on collaboration between MIT and Harvard, prior to coming to UMass. SHB: What are some of the chal- lenges that lie ahead for the Building Authority? Filippone: The challenge will be looking at ways to utilize public- private partnerships so that we can assist the campuses in financ- ing their different needs. We have considerable deferred maintenance and will need to invest in our campuses to remain competitive. Prioritizing our capital plan based on affordability will be important. SHB