Two years ago, Ohio State privatized its parking under a 50-year lease that paid the university $483 million. The privatization has not proved particularly popular among the users of parking on campus, though that was perhaps not an unexpected consequence.
Now OSU leaders are considering a second privatization, this time of utilities on campus. The idea, as outlined in today's Columbus Dispatch, would lease management of the university's electricity and natural-gas delivery systems, along with campus lighting and other energy-related infrastructure, to a private company that would presumably also purchase energy on behalf of the university. Presumably the private operator would receive a guaranteed annual sum from the university for energy use, and the operator could increase profits by generating savings through prudent management and better energy efficiency. A proposed deal would have some of those savings passed back to the university.
I doubt this privatization would be anywhere near as controversial as the parking deal, given that energy use is borne by the university as a whole and not by individual staff and students. The Dispatch story mentions that the University of Oklahoma has been operating for four years under a similar arrangement, with apparently few, if any, problems.
Clearly the vogue for privatization at public universities is going to continue, and it will be interesting to see how this potential deal unfolds in the months ahead.