University of Louisville and Allen &
O’Hara Education Services: A
Partnership in Excellence
Awarded: Spring 2010
Highlights of Partnership
• UofL and Allen& O’Hara (A&O)came together as
partners in 1998 as they collaborated on a series
of housing facilities to be designed, built and
managed by A&O beginning the fall semester,
2000. Housing Foundation formed by UofL that
hired A&O as “manager” for the new facilities
– More cost efficient in construction and daily
operational expenses
– More timely (faster) than state construction guidelines
– Placed no new debt on the university’s or state’s debt
capacity
Highlights of Partnership
• From fall, 2000 – present: added 1,288 beds to
the adjusted UofL housing inventory (1,700) for a
total on-campus capacity of approximately 3,000.
• Enabled UofL to raise on-campus capacity from
9% of FTE to 19%
• Provided a variety of housing options in both
style and cost
• Provided an opportunity of utilizing the strengths
of both educational and privatized based
management for the students of UofL
Initial 10 years of partnership
• A&O referred to their halls as University
Louisville Properties (ULP)
• UofL supported occupancy of ULP by changing
initial prohibition of freshmen to the halls to
allowing freshmen to live there
• ULP functioned under landlord tenant lease
business plan for student occupancy; UofL
continued under standard educational based
license
Initial 10 years of partnership
• ULP Manager worked directly with VP for Business
(who oversaw housing foundation) for most business
related items; and with director of Housing for
student concerns
• ULP honored Housing’s expectation for student
development and adjudication
• ULP provided quality programming for students in
their area separately from UofL halls
• Student staff of both were trained together on such
areas as crisis response, student code of conduct ,
and other common areas
• Both areas began a gradual combination of student
processes and response
Enhances in partnership since award
Goal: To create a seamless environment for
students, parents and the university
– Business and Operational Processes
– Education / Leadership Practices
Enhances in partnership since award
• Business and Operational processes
• ULP changed from Landlord Tenant leasing to
university license
• Created common processes (Application,
Assignment, Billing through student accounts,
Cancellation timeline and processing charges
• Changed waitlist to be through room change
route instead of holding out for desired
assignment
• Combined some outsourced services into one
agreement (laundry, data system)
Enhances in partnership since award
• Educational / Leadership
– Combined RA selection and training processes
– Created a collateral work system that includes the
RLCs from both areas in the rotation
– Provided first year mentoring experience in all
halls
– Combined fulltime staff meetings and created
joint development goals and events
– Included ULP manager as a member of the
director’s leadership team
Enhances in partnership since award
• Overall Benefits gained
– Foundation shifted under VP Finance who
minimizes involvement with management to
bonding / budgeting and oversight of ground lease
– Housing is included as either an approver or
“recommender” in all aspects of University
relation to Foundation business
– Students don’t know a difference in who is
managing or overseeing facility
– Campus sees common policies, processes and
overall strength of on-campus Housing