Faculty Concerned About Proposal to Lease OSU Parking Operations to a Private Concessionaire/Lender

Last update: 12 February 2013

In September 2011, the Ohio State University Board of Trustees authorized the university administration to lease campus parking operations to a private concessionaire/lender for 50 years, in return for a loan of at least $375M. [Update as of 11 June 2012: On 8 June 2012, the OSU administration recommended to the Board of Trustees its approval of a loan of $483M from an Australian investment firm, Queensland Investment Corp, and its operating partner, LAZ Parking. Board approval is expected on June 21 or 22.]

There are many unresolved questions about this proposal: financial and ethical, practical and philosophical. The first section below contains information about the results of a survey in which over 1200 tenure-track faculty expressed their views about the parking privatization proposal -- more than 5 out of 6 are opposed to it.

There are also links to two short videos that we hope will help everyone understand some of the implications of parking privatization for the University. One is locally produced at OSU and addresses the claim that the transaction would yield "millions of new dollars to invest in the academic core". The other is a news report on a similar parking privatization initiative considered by the city of Harrisburg, PA, with some information as well about the Chicago parking meter privatization debacle.

The other links on this page lead to additional information OSU faculty members prepared or found of particular interest over the past several months. There are also links to background information provided by the OSU administration and links to resolutions considered by Faculty Council. Information in each section is in chronological order.

We invite any other OSU faculty member who wishes to have their name listed below to join us in registering their concern about continuing to pursue the proposal before there has been an honest public discussion of a host of important issues. Please send e-mail to Bruce Weide (weide.1) with your name and, if available and you want it shown here, a link to your OSU web page. Whether or not you want your name listed, please send a link to this page to anyone else you think might be interested in it. [Updates as of 11 June 2012 and 12 February 2013: This page is being updated now to add a few new links to recent public information, including the responses from OSU legal affairs in response to a public records request we made for documents "that show the OSU administration's financial modeling and analysis of the proposed privatization of OSU parking operations." To date, no records that actually include such a financial model or analysis have been made available to us.]

Survey

• Results of Survey of 1252 OSU Tenure-Track Faculty (PDF, 2012-04-04)


• The Columbus Dispatch: "Many OSU professors say they oppose plan to privatize parking, survey finds" (2012-04-04)
• The Lantern: "Many faculty oppose parking privatization" (2012-04-09)

Videos

• Should OSU Privatize Its Parking Operations? (8-min video, 2012-02-28)
• Ellen Dannin's OSU Seminar: Privatizing Public Assets -- Should the Seller Beware? (94-min flash video, 2012-04-25)


• PBS: "City for sale: The politics of privatizing infrastructure" (10-min video, 2011-09-16)

Information from OSU Faculty

• Some Issues and Questions About OSU Parking Privatization Proposal (Profs. Beck, Bonello, and Weide; PDF, 2 pages, 2012-02-07)
• Financial Analysis of OSU Parking Privatization Proposal (Prof. Weide; Excel spreadsheet, 2012-05-13) [replaces version from 2012-03-09 with updated estimates of some figures]
• An Analysis of Certain Aspects of the OSU Proposal to Lease Parking Operations (Profs. Dietrich and Makhija; PDF, 7 pages, 2012-04-12)
• Discussion of Parking Privatization Analysis from Profs. Dietrich and Makhija (Prof. Weide; PDF, 2 pages, 2012-04-19)
• Op-Ed Signed by 100+ OSU Faculty Members (PDF, 2 pages plus signatures, 2012-05-14)
• Public Records Request (Prof. Weide; PDF, 1 page, 2012-05-16; see "Information from OSU Administration" for any responses)
• Parking Leasing Analysis Spreadsheet (Profs. Dietrich, Heinz, Makhija, and Weide; Excel spreasdsheet, 2012-05-30)
• Additional Analysis of Certain Aspects of the OSU Proposal to Lease Parking Operations (Profs. Dietrich, Heinz, Makhija, and Weide; PDF, 6 pages, 2012-05-30)
• Overview of Parking Financials (Prof. Weide; PDF, 2 pages, 2012-05-30)


• In the Public Interest: "Privatization Myths Debunked"
• Chicago Sun-Times: "Chicago faces $200 million claim over Aqua parking garage"
• The Lantern: "Faculty against $400M parking deal, despite OSU's affirmations" (2012-04-24)
• Time Business: "Chicago's Parking Meter Debacle: The Check Is Not in the Mail" (2012-05-11)

Information from OSU Administration

• Board of Trustees Resolution (PDF, 2011-09-09)
• Request for Qualifications (PDF, 2011-10?)
• Chatas Response to Issues and Questions from 2/7 (PDF, 2012-02-29)
• Frequently Asked Questions (PDF, copied 2012-03-08)
• E-mail from President Gee announcing that RFP has gone out (e-mail message file, 2012-04-23)
• Summary of Concession Agreement (PDF, 18 pages, 2012-05-04; no longer considered "confidential" per e-mail of 2012-05-04)
• New (26 April 2012) OSU Parking Proposal Web Site (caveat emptor!)
• Records Released in Response to 16 May 2012 Public Records Request (see "Information from OSU Faculty" above)
• E-mail Response to 16 May 2012 Public Records Request (see "Information from OSU Faculty" above)

Faculty Council Resolutions

• Faculty Council Resolution #1, approved at meeting of 13 Oct 2011 (PDF, 2011-10-06)
• Faculty Council Resolution #2, approved at meeting of 9 Feb 2012 (PDF, 2012-02-07)
• Faculty Council Resolution #3, approved at meeting of 8 Mar 2012 (PDF, 2012-03-08)
• Faculty Council Resolution #4, defeated 15-22-8 at meeting of 31 May 2012 (PDF, 2012-05-31)
• Parking Transparency and Accountability Report resolution, approved unanimously by Faculty Council at meeting of 6 Dec 2012, and approved unanimously by University Senate at meeting of 7 Feb 2013 (PDF, 2013-01-31)

Faculty Signatories

1. Gagan Agrawal
2. Ola Ahlqvist
3. Gulsah Akar
4. Leslie Alexander
5. Michael Aman
6. Greg Anderson
7. Julia Andrews
8. Philip Armstrong
9. L. Eugene Arnold
10. Janice Aski
11. Gordon Aubrecht
12. Christine Ballengee-Morris
13. Nicholas Basta
14. Paul Beck
15. Misha Belkin
16. James Belknap
17. Nina Berman
18. Diane W. Birckbichler
19. Enrico Bonello
20. Jason Box
21. Sergey Brodsky
22. John Brooke
23. Charles Brooks
24. Philip Brown
25. Claudia Buchmann
26. Timothy Buckley
27. Cynthia Burack
28. Richard Busick
29. Snjezana Buzov
30. Greg Caldeira
31. Luis Cañas
32. Scottye Cash
33. Roger Cherry
34. Jeffrey Cohen
35. Benjamin Coifman
36. Leo Coleman
37. Mathew Coleman
38. R. Dawn Comstock
39. Elizabeth Cooksey
40. Roger Crawfis
41. Edward Crenshaw
42. Alison Crocetta
43. Peter Curtis
44. Marcelo Dapino
45. Ian Davis
46. Ana Del Sarto
47. Richard Dick
48. Rebecca Dupaix
49. Michael Ellis
50. Nancy Ettlinger
51. Bill Form
52. Reanne Frank
53. Mary A. Fristad
54. Brian McSpadden Gardener
55. Ben Givens
56. Prem Goel
57. Harvey Graff
58. Terry Graham
59. John Guilmartin
60. Susan Hadley
61. Kai Hammermeister
62. Susan Hartmann
63. Tom Hawkins
64. Andrew Heckler
65. Ulrich Heinz
66. David Herman
67. Dan Herms
68. Joan Huber
69. John H. Hughes
70. Shahrukh Irani
71. Pranav Jani
72. Susan Jones
73. Roy Joshua
74. Robin Judd
75. Stephen Kern
76. Rebecca Kim
77. Ousman Kobo
78. Fabio Leite
79. Kristi Lekies
80. Thomas Lemberger
81. Michael Lisa
82. Linda Lobao
83. Steven Lopez
84. Mark Loux
85. Doug MacBeth
86. Becky Mansfield
87. Jay Martin
88. Sandip Mazumder
89. Gail McKoon
90. Timothy McNiven
91. Daniel Mendelsohn
92. May Mergenthaler
93. James Metzger
94. David Neal Miller
95. Sally Miller
96. Margaret Mills
97. Rabi Mishalani
98. James Mulick
99. Darla Munroe
100. Jane Murphy
101. Jan Nespor
102. Terry Niblack
103. Dorothy Noyes
104. Lynne Olson
105. Rick Parent
106. Mark Partridge
107. Popat Patil
108. Dennis Pearl
109. Cynthia Preston
110. Ana Puga
111. Feng Qin
112. Charles Quinn
113. Stuart Raby
114. Cathy Rakowski
115. Rajiv Ramnath
116. Mohit Randeria
117. Daniel T. Reff
118. Melinda Rhoades
119. Elaine Richardson
120. Jenny Robb
121. Patrick Roblin
122. Nathan Rosenstein
123. Randy Roth
124. Jim Sanders
125. Thomas Santner
126. Scott Scheer
127. Barry Shank
128. James Shaw
129. Louisa Shea
130. Tao Shi
131. Ness Shroff
132. Amy Shuman
133. Jennifer Siegel
134. Suzanne Silver
135. Paul Sivilotti
136. Todd Slaughter
137. Vladimir Sloutsky
138. Birgitte Soland
139. Carolyn Sommerich
140. Neelam Soundarajan
141. Kimberly Springer
142. David Steigerwald
143. Dan Strunk
144. Vish Subramaniam
145. Jennifer Suchland
146. Xiaodong Sun
147. Ken Supowit
148. Heather Tanner
149. Mary Thomas
150. Richard Torrance
151. Abril Trigo
152. Trish Van Zandt
153. Laura Wagner
154. Joel Wainwright
155. Mark Walter
156. Leon Wang
157. Yusu Wang
158. Sabra Webber
159. Linda Weavers
160. Bruce Weide
161. Joseph Williams
162. Kristi Williams
163. Andrea Wolfe
164. Judy Wu
165. Mei Zhuang
166. Mark Ziolo