Daily Egyptian Spring 04
Spring '04 Edition
University Housing plans for expansions, improvements in upcoming year
Kate Galbreath
Daily Egyptian
New students and students returning to University Housing will see several changes in formerly tired campus buildings. The changes are intended to improve the quality of housing facilities, as well as accommodating more students on campus.
The three main housing areas of campus, University Park, Thompson Point and Brush Towers, will be joined by a fourth with the February purchase of University Hall. Though the demographics of residents remains to be seen, the hall will offer a dining hall and a pool, among other unique commodities.
Another major step taken by the University will be the peer mentor program established by Residence Life.
"We are starting a new program in housing called the Saluki Peers," said Housing Programming Coordinator Kathie Lorentz. "What we're doing is we're hiring sophomore students with a 3.5 GPA and above to serve as mentors in Wright and University Halls. Since we're doing it as a pilot program, we know University Hall is a new building for us and we just picked Wright randomly out of University Park.
"The peer mentors will live in buildings, and their main purpose is to interact, take them to football games, show them where the writing center is at."
The mentors will be introduced on the scene at the same time as the Resident Assistant and will complete a course for credit in addition to 10 hours a week mentoring.
An additional freshman interest group will allow new architectural students to live on the same floor.
"The other fundamental difference is we're going to be smoke-free next year," said Crystal Bouhl, University Housing's coordinator of marketing and public information. "The majority of our buildings [this year] permit it, but some floors are healthy lifestyle floors."
Next year, smoking will not be allowed in any University Housing facility even if the roommates both smoke.
Bouhl detailed other changes, such as the addition of new beds and new window screens in Thompson Point, as well as one major change in Lentz Dining Hall. A sparsely used dining room apart from the main room will have an addition built to allow for outdoor dining.
"The Lentz Courtyard will be a walled-in courtyard so the students will be able do dine al fresco," Bouhl said.
Grinnell Dining Hall will have a basement renovation including an addition to Grinnelli's Pizza, a professional dance studio, and a new area for students to congregate or study. The area will resemble the Last Resort Room of Lentz, which features a pool table, booths and a big-screen television.
Also, as part of the 15-year plan for housing, the fall 2006 semester will usher in the development of the Wall and Grand Apartment Complex.
"We are building an apartment-style housing complex on that corner. It will give students the opportunity to live on campus, but at the same time give them the off-campus experience," Bouhl said.
Greek Row recently underwent a slight facelift with the demolition of Barber Hall and Caldwell Hall and will see more changes.
"We have already razed buildings 105 and 103, " Bouhl said. "Both were in disrepair for several years."
A Thompson Point addition is planned for the current Greek Row space, but could take several years to implement because the current Greek area will be moving west of its current location.
Many students have also had normal class routes displaced by the closing of the main bridge on campus. Bouhl said the project is strictly a Physical Plant project and University Housing has no impact on the renovation.
However, she noted the Saluki Express has scheduled several new stops around campus to aid students affected by the bridge closing.
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Last update: Tuesday, May 4, 2004 at 2:09:00 AM
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