The University’s future students can look forward to a new residence hall that combines living quarters with spaces for academic pursuits.
University President Dave Frohnmayer picked the site of the new “living and learning center” last week, and construction is set to begin in January 2005. The $27 million hall will be located on E. 15th Avenue between Earl and Walton Complexes.
Mike Eyster, the assistant vice president of Student Affairs and director of University Housing, said the new center will accommodate up to 400 students at full capacity. Aside from bedrooms, other features slated in the design include classrooms, study spaces, offices and an auditorium.
“I would expect it to have facilities for students to go to class close to where they live,” Eyster said, adding that the University wants to create spaces that easily facilitate increased faculty-student interaction.
He said the chosen site is ideal because the University wants a location that is easy for professors to get to from their offices. In addition, since the building will be used for classes, it needs to be within a 10-minute walking distance from other central parts of campus. The University also considered the Bean Complex parking lot as an alternative site for the living and learning center.
Eyster said there is tremendous educational value in having places where students and faculty can interact informally. The new building will have “touch down” offices — temporary units where faculty can meet with students for academic advising or other activities.
Vice President for Student Affairs Anne Leavitt said there is not currently much connection between the classroom and residence halls, and the living and learning center will help to bridge that gap.
“Faculty and students will have a physical place to interact in a place that’s accessible to residence halls,” she said, adding that faculty who teach freshmen were especially interested in the project.
She said the hall’s central location right at the heart of campus will be an added advantage.
“All the halls around it will benefit from its location,” she said.
The University built its last new residence hall, Bean Complex, in 1963.
“We have to upgrade and modernize the facilities,” Eyster said, adding that there is no modern housing in the central part of campus. “Students are different now then they were 40 years ago.”
He said he recognizes that prospective students have a lot of choices in where they choose to go to school.
“I’m concerned that our existing halls are so out-of-date that it will affect the University’s ability to recruit students,” he said. The primary population of the new hall would be first-year students.
One of the key differences in the new hall will be the size of the rooms. While rooms in current halls are about 150 square feet, the new hall will boast rooms of about 225 square feet.
“That’s not extravagant, but it’s much nicer than what we have now,” Eyster said.
Earl and Walton, the two complexes surrounding the site, are even older than Bean. Eyster said that the construction will be the first step in making that quadrant of campus more attractive. He said other halls would eventually also be upgraded and renovated.
“This is the first step for a long-term process to renovate all our residence halls,” he said.
Some students welcome the idea of a new residence hall, especially since halls are their home away from home.
“There could definitely be some improvements facility-wise,” freshman Brita Merkel said. She said that the halls are comfortable now, but some alterations would only make them better.
“I’m excited about any changes that could happen,” she said.
Freshman Stephanie Nicholls said while the rooms in the residence halls are a bit small, they are livable and a great place to make friends.
“I like the sense of community,” she said.
Freshman Michelle Lothers agreed, saying that everyone gets to make new friends.
“I love them,” she said.” I like how central it is (in relation) to my classes.”
The living and learning center should be open for business in fall 2006.