The university bought a house at 361 S. Columbia for its new president, Bethany Paul, and her family.
According to Michael Horan, vice president of business and finance, this is not the first time Capital has bought a house for a president.
“Kline [Center for Health and Wellness] used to be a president’s house, and then we had one at 805 Francis, and from there we bought one on Stanbury,” Horan said.
However, in 2007 with the economic downturn, the university was forced to sell the house on Stanbury to help with the school’s financial situation. After selling the house, Capital invested the money, which allowed for the purchase of Paul’s new home.
The 3,800 square-foot house is listed for $904,464 on Zillow real estate.
“We’ve gone the last 10 years without a house, but the feeling was from the board, that they wanted part of this new president’s job to be [about] more entertaining and development and felt like Dr. Paul needed a place … to do that,” Horan said.
As president, it will be Paul’s responsibility to entertain guests such as donors, alumni, faculty, and students. And, as it is with many universities, the new house will have a purpose in entertaining guests to help raise money for the endowment and development areas.
“It just provides a different, more intimate setting, than here like in Schneider. And that was the goal. We don’t really have a place, we have the alumni house a little bit, to entertain groups. But if you are going to entertain a large donor or a small group of students, there’s not a great place to do it,” said Horan.
While Paul could not be reached for comment, Horan said that she loves the house.
“We hope that Dr. Paul stays around for a long time, but it has to serve many presidents past her [so] part of [the house search] wasn’t her choice. But she’s been through it and she loves it. She thinks there’s a lot of opportunity for it,” said Horan.
The university decided on the S. Columbia house after looking at many different houses because it does not need many renovations.
Horan hopes to close on the house June 30, and start the minor fixes—like painting the walls and finishing the hard wood floors—July 15 when the university gets the keys. Paul and her family are expected to be moved in by no later than July 30.
