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Printer-Friendly ModeNew housing to address growth
April 4, 2005 —
At the March 21 Board of Control meeting, a resolution was passed to bring 105 more beds to campus by the 2005 and 2006 fall semesters.
The resolution, designed to improve the quality of campus housing and to fill the increasing demand for living on campus, also brought discussion about what SVSU plans to do about housing in upcoming years.
The approved resolution will add 24 beds to the current Village 3 project that is underway on campus and will be completed by the fall semester of 2005. It will also provide space for 81 more students in the Living Center South Complex in order to parallel the Living Center North Complex by the fall semester of 2006. The estimated cost for the two projects is $4.5 million.
President Eric Gilbertson pointed out that money won't be a factor as housing is self-supporting through the auxiliary budget of the University, meaning that the rental income will cover the expenses.
The University is anticipating close to 1,900 students living on campus in the fall. Assistant Vice President of Student Services and Director of Residential Life Merry Jo Brandimore pointed out that the additions will help deal with the density in the First Year Suites.
In the past few years SVSU has attracted more and more freshmen who desire to live on campus.
As a result, the SVSU housing office has had to assign the maximum number of first-year students in each available room. It has been the University's intention to reduce the number of individuals in each suite from the maximum, eight, to six or seven residents. The environment of the suites will remain intact, but the potential for interpersonal issues to be a problem will likely be reduced with a lower occupancy in this complex.
Another view offered at the meeting was offered by Student Association President Armen Hratchian, who wanted to bring more First Year Suites-style housing to campus. He said that this wouldn't spoil freshmen students and would give them something to look forward to as they progress in their education at SVSU. This would also allow returning students better chances of getting the selection of housing that they want when living on campus, and would eliminate the possibility of freshmen students getting upset with being confined to the First Year Suites instead of the Living Center complexes.
Increased demand for living on campus has caused the University to think about future development. Demand is at a significant increase for freshmen planning to live on campus from last year at this time. The amount of returning students on campus has increased significantly compared to last year.
"The questions become: what is our need for additional housing, what should it be and where might it be located," says Robert Maurovich, vice president of Student Services and Enrollment Management. "Part of that discussion also involves what we see as our ultimate residential community capacity."
The University is currently taking caution when deciding whether or not to add housing because of an expected drop in high school graduates in 2008. Administration and Board of Control members will be looking to make a decision within the next year to decide when and where more housing will be built if the need arises for more housing in the future.