New Dorms, Dining Coming to Campus

Nick Lowrey

Ground will be broken on four new residence halls at the end of this semester. Three of the new halls will be built on the North, South and West sides of Pierson Hall, while the fourth will be built behind Brown Hall. The project will add as many as 802 beds to campus by

August 2013. It is expected to cost around $45.7 million.

The money for the new residence halls was made available by the consolidation of bonds issued for earlier construction projects. The new project will also be paid for by issuing bonds; which will be paid off to by the rents charged to the students occupying the new halls.

Dining services in The Union will also be expanded to help accommodate the increased number of students. Construction on this project will also begin late this spring and reach completion in Aug. 2013. The expansion is slated to add around 20,000 square feet to The Union and 300 additional seats to dining services at an expected cost of around $8.3 million.

Construction on both projects is slated to begin in late April or early May. The University recently created a planning committee to decide how best to help students navigate through the construction sites. The new halls and dining expansion are both part of the second phase of the residential life and dining services master plan for 2008 to 2018.

The master plan calls for the creation of two distinct student neighborhoods, one in the Southeast part of campus for freshmen and sophomores, the second in the Northwest corner for upperclassmen. There are three phases in the master plan, the first called for the construction of Jack Rabbit Village and the addition of both Einstein Bros. and Weary Wil’s to The Union.

Following the completion of those projects in 2010, the master plan was evaluated and updated as part of the process for starting on phase two. According to the updated master plan, despite the addition of Jack Rabbit Village, there was a shortage of 355 beds in 2010. Projections showed that the gap would contin