The owners of five private residence halls near the University of Wisconsin campus, including Statesider and the Towers, are close to finalizing the sale of the properties.

However, after the UW registrar's office issued a new policy regarding freshman mailing lists, whoever buys the properties might have trouble advertising to incoming freshmen and other future tenants.

In a November 2006 memo, UW informed University House and hundreds of other private businesses that they will no longer be receiving mailing lists for admitted freshmen.

The policy change is scheduled to begin in September 2007.

"Many prospective students and their parents have complained about being inundated with unwanted solicitations," UW Vice Provost Joanne Berg said in the memo. "The fact that the university has supplied lists for such solicitations also gives the incorrect impression of endorsement and quality assurance."

The sale of the Statesider, Towers, Langdon, Regent and Highlander private residence halls is part of a nationwide deal orchestrated by FirstWorthing, a major property developer based in Dallas, Texas. FirstWorthing is the parent company of Georgia-based University House Partners, which owns the residence halls.

University House Partners currently has properties at 16 universities in 10 different states that will all be sold in the "recapitalization."

"We expect that staffing and daily operations will remain unchanged," said Sharon Goldmacher, University House Partners spokesperson, in an e-mail to The Badger Herald. "To that end, if the property does change hands, University Partners would work with the new leadership to ensure the community rapport continues throughout any transition."

A former University House employee — who spoke on the condition of anonymity — told The Badger Herald he suspected the sale of the University House buildings might also have to do with falling rentals at the Madison locations.

According to Aaron Babcock, University House marketing director, the sites in Madison currently have 20 percent of their capacity filled for the upcoming 2007-08 academic year.

The residence hall properties were listed without an asking price, according to Brian Wolff, vice president of the Madison branch of Realtor CB Richard Ellis.

After receiving continuous bids since earlier this year, Wolff said the five residence halls should have a buyer in the coming months.

"We're definitely excited to see [what happens]," Wolff said. "They've all been renovated, so they're in great condition."

Babcock said they will be examining other options to advertise to incoming freshmen next year, but added he understands UW's position.

"I think the demand from freshmen is to live on campus — it's their responsibility to meet that demand, and they're not doing anything to get rid of private housing," Babcock said. "No students are in danger of losing this opportunity to live in private dorms."

UW Housing Director Paul Evans said the decision to withhold the addresses of admitted freshmen was not targeted at increasing business for UW-owned residence halls.

Chancellor John Wiley's housing master plan — which extends through 2020 — calls for every incoming freshman to have the option of staying on campus. Despite Wiley's plan, Evans said UW would not require students to live on campus.

According to Evans, freshmen previously did not have the ability to "opt out" of the mailers until they were officially enrolled at the university.

However, Steve Brown Apartments spokesperson Margaret Watson said the Madison Realtor is looking into questioning the policy.

"The biggest problem by the UW limiting [the lists] is that they are limiting the choice [for students] before they know they even have a choice," Watson said. "It's a tragedy to not know about the vast housing choices that they have."