By: Kanoa Ikeda-Flynn
Priory campus’ future is undecided as Dominican’s Board of Operations look into possible alternatives for its use or eventual selling. Due to the high need for maintenance, huge functions that Priory were originally intended for, such as Aquinas Hall resident housing, and multiple graduate program offices have been closed and merged with the main campus.
Going on its 16th year as a Dominican purchased secondary campus, the property is currently being used only as a meeting place for select graduate courses, and still holds the Rose K. Goedert Early Childhood Education Center.
Questions were raised for Priory as early as last year when Aquinas Hall, (Priory’s residential housing) had closed down due to heavy disrepair. In its subtle yet continuous decline in disrepair, the campus only held 29 students which furthered the lack of amenities and increased the livability of the hall.
Jill Albin-Hill, the Vice President for Technology & Operations had this to say:
“With the amount of money it was costing just to maintain the bare minimum, the important thing was to lock the door with Priory, and to put forth those resources back at the main campus.”
By vacating and minimizing its usage, expenses and total cost avoidance played a large role in savings that Hill intended to use towards upgrades for the main campus.
Some of the direct and cost avoidance savings included:
- Eliminating overnight campus-safety
- Lowering the amount of shuttle runs between campus’ and downtown Oak Park drop-off
- Utility savings
- Lowering of custodial costs
- Avoiding flood damage in the basement
- Avoiding plumbing costs
- Avoiding floor gutting/replacement
- Avoiding general repairs for 6 offline housing units.
With initial department relocation plans confirmed, Hill was responsible for the relocation of past Aquinas residents and graduate program offices. Factors that played a role in this included the incoming freshman class and the necessity of keeping members of specific offices within the same general area throughout Dominican.
The past residents of Aquinas transferred relatively easy. Due to there only being 29 students in the 2017-18 school year, and a freshman class size at around 400 students, housing had ample room especially after taking commuting students into account.
ikedkano@my.dom.edu
