OSU Repair Backlog Estimated At $1 Billion

COLUMBUS, Ohio —Students at The Ohio State University can attest that not every campus building is in pristine condition. Now the school is working to get an exact count on how much the backlog of maintenance repairs will cost to fix.

In 2007, an OSU study estimated that more than one billion dollars would be required to maintain, repair and renovate school facilities that had fallen behind.

The school is inspecting the more than 440 buildings on campus before determining exactly how much it will cost and how long it will take to address the backlog that school leaders attribute to having to make hard choices on how to spend limited resources.

“I don’t think it’s a problem, but I would say it is an issue,“ said Jeff Kaplan, Senior Vice President for Administration and Planning. “The issue is how do we find the money in the face of other pressing needs, hiring the best professors, buying new equipment that we need, funding research that is critically important to the state of Ohio, the country and the world, besides us. How do you still find the right amount of money to patch the floor or fix the roof?“

Kaplan expects the school to wrap up its inspections of campus buildings in January, then present a report of its finding to the Board of Trustees in February.

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