Housing grows with campus

The concrete forms and fences surrounding the construction site are all students see of Ridgecrest East right now.

Between the exposed dirt and gravel trails leading to the construction site, the more than $70 million the University is pouring into the building has not yet started to show.

But by fall 2009, 968 students will be sleeping in the new residence hall and 950 cars will be parked in the parking deck.

It will be the last residence hall built before the University's enrollment hits 28,000 students, and the last portion of the most recent growth spurt of on-campus housing. Though no new residence halls are in the works, many of the changes for housing on- and off-campus are just starting.

On-campus living

Staff members who work with Housing and Residential Communities can finally take a breath. For the first time since fall 2005, no new residence hall will be opening this fall.

Alicia Browne, assistant director for information and communications for HRC, said it feels different to not have a new building opening up. Despite yearly rumors, there are also no buildings coming down because, she said, they need the space to house the students who want to live on campus.

"We want to accommodate as many students as we can on campus," she said, "and [Paty and Somerville] are certainly good buildings to live in on campus."

For fall 2008, Browne said, 1,950 students applied to return to campus, and 260 were placed on a waiting list. In addition to the returning students, every freshman next year will also have to live on campus.

As more housing becomes available, Browne said, they are removing students from the waiting list, starting with sophomores first.

"If there are any students still on the waiting list as we begin spring break, we will contact them to see whether they wish to remain on the waiting list and try to be accommodated," Browne said.

Instead of immediately tearing down a building because of the demand, David Jones, executive director of HRC, said they want to have one or two major renovation projects each summer, starting with Friedman Hall this coming summer and Harris Hall in summer 2009.

Jones said there are long-term ideas to take down a dorm or to build another one as space becomes available, but there is no timeline for any of the projects. Following the campus master plan, he said, eventually Paty Hall might be torn down because the Campus Drive extension is planned to go through that site.

"But that's not anything that's going to happen in the near future," Jones said. "It's something long-term."

Before the conversation about taking down a building gets started, Jones said they are trying to start a seven-year rotation maintenance plan to take care of every residence hall on campus.

"Right now, we're playing a little bit of catch-up with the older buildings, but we're not far off from being where we're on a rotation," he said.

The maintenance includes upkeep such as replacing mattresses and furniture. Jones said, when he started, he saw a mattress with a date spray-painted on it. If the date was correct, the mattress was almost 15 years old.

Now, along with updating the look and safety features of the buildings, he said they are keeping up with the mattresses also.

Off-campus living

As the enrollment edges closer to the goal of 28,000, UA President Robert Witt said he expects there to be enough space for the people who want to live on campus, but he doubts the University will hit a point where it cannot say yes to everyone, because of the availability of apartments close to campus.

He said he sees the supply and quality of housing going up, and within the next six to nine months, he thinks there will be at least one announcement about a significant apartment complex that will be built near campus.

Between the growing supply of housing and the Crimson Choice program that helps to ensure the quality, Witt said the availability off-campus housing should limit the amount of pressure on the University.

And by having more students off campus, he said, it helps the University.

"While we always want to be able to satisfy all of those who want to live on campus, every dollar we have to tie up in providing housing for students who want to live on campus but don't have to is a dollar that can't go into renovating a classroom or expanding the Ferguson Center," Witt said.

A goal to help those students who live off campus is to expand the bus system into those areas, Witt said. That way, students who live a mile or two off campus could count on the buses to get to campus.

Initiatives from the SGA, such as the Crimson Choice program and the Crimson Watch program, will also add to the quality of off-campus housing, Witt said.

"If those initiatives are successful, I can see the attractiveness of living off campus going up significantly. I can see the care of the property of both the students and the rental property owners going up significantly," Witt said. "I can see those neighborhoods beginning to take on their own character."