emands for more and better student housing facilities are heard on most campuses across the country. As housing officers are challenged to satisfy those demands, an immediate and compelling question is whether it is financially feasible to undertake the construction and renovation projects that are needed. The answer to that question usually depends upon a campus’s financial capacity to assume and repay long-term debt because debt is the source of funding for most such projects. Debt financing is not an everyday pursuit of housing professionals. The process requires the expertise of attorneys, underwriters, and financial officers to manage the complex legal, tax, and structural aspects involved. These won’t be covered here. What will be discussed are basic concepts in debt financing that will help housing officers recognize and advance opportunities for its use in improving the residences their institutions can offer students. In short, debt is a means to the end of expanded and improved campus housing facilities. Decisions to seek and assume debt for that purpose are best reached D 28 Balancing A TALKING STICK