Oregon Public Broadcasting

Leaders of the Oregon Institute of Technology signed a lease Monday, committing the school to move into a vacant office building in Wilsonville. As Rob Manning reports, OIT is hoping lawmakers will back the move.

OIT signed a ten-year lease agreement. But officials hope that legislators will approve state-backed bonds so the university can buy the old InFocus building outright.

Chris Maples is OIT's president.

Chris Maples: "It is far more economical for us to go ahead and get the building purchased. It will cost us more if we have to drag this out an extra few years in order to get the bonding."

Maples says OIT can afford the move without the legislature's help. That's because it'll save money by simultaneously closing four Portland-area campuses when Wilsonville would open, in two years.

The consolidation plan has drawn criticism, because Wilsonville is 20 miles south of Portland and isn't widely accessible by transit.

Maples says Wilsonville can serve both Portland and the Salem area. He hopes transit could follow student demand.