The University of Central Florida and its Board of Trustees identified an unsustainable financial trajectory for its housing system and were determined to explore how housing services could take on rising expenses and required deferred maintenance without raising costs for students.

UCF engaged B&D to develop recommendations about how to reduce housing costs. One area of exploration included assessing whether a P3 student housing manager would provide value. The project took on extra weight as the pandemic wore on, with the university operating at a reduced capacity and students and their families dealing with financial burdens of their own.

B&D’s Management Advisory Services work included a detailed financial analysis of UCF’s housing portfolio to identify opportunities to optimize the management of its assets. Additionally, a benchmarking effort against peer university housing systems and private-sector service providers revealed that the university was providing a level of custodial service beyond the norm.

In UCF’s case, B&D determined that a strategy to reduce expenses and modify the interdepartmental budgeting process would result in better financial and student outcomes than contracting for housing management by a third-party provider. The project team recommended several internal cost-saving measures, ranging from having students take out their own trash to cutting cable TV service. University stakeholders are now equipped with an updated interdepartmental Memorandum of Understanding to govern housing operations going forward.