Administrators hope new residence hall will draw upperclassmen
By Jonathan Hiser
Sporting spacious suites, personal bathrooms and a recreation room, UP's newest dorm plans have upperclassmen in mind. Combined, the two proposed four-story dorms - one male and one female - can house 312 students. Each floor contains double bedrooms for freshmen and sophomores on one side of the hall with larger single and double suites for juniors and seniors on the other.
Residence Life Director Michael Walsh said the designs are based largely upon junior and senior feedback, whose main concerns were primarily lack of quietness and privacy. The decision to include special rooms as an incentive for upperclassmen occurred early in the design phases.
"The goal is to create residence halls that are attractive to all levels of students, not just freshmen and sophomores," ASUP President David Gregg said.
The Rev. John Donato, C.S.C., the associate vice president of student life, said retention of juniors and seniors is part of the University's long-term goal to increase on-campus residence to around 75 percent. By retaining juniors and seniors in particular, the new single-sex residence halls are intended to foster a strong social and academic environment.
"We find that juniors and seniors have a great influence on the freshmen and sophomores," Walsh said. "They don't listen to the RAs the way they listen to the upperclassmen."
The emphasis on hall identity supported the decision for a single-sex building arrangement, according to Gregg.
"Single-sex dorms breed a super-active community and a lot of inter-dorm competitions," Gregg said. "I don't think we should be terrified of that idea."
Walsh said he is a strong supporter of single-sex dorms, pointing out that the highest return rates on campus are among single-sex halls.
"The return rate says something, because you don't come back to something you hate," Walsh said. "Those are numbers that don't lie."
UP President the Rev. William Beauchamp, C.S.C., said the consensus to build two single-sex dorms existed among UP executive officers years before his appointment. Beauchamp and the university vice-presidents made the final decision after considering feedback from student surveys and committees.
The responses included a resolution by ASUP that recommended future single-sex dorms. Some senators still disapproved of the proposed layout.
"There are some senators who are opposed to single-sex dorms, and there some senators who think it's fine," Gregg said. "The neat thing is that it looks and functions like one building."
Current design plans call for two distinct L-shaped buildings, connected by a chapel and common space to form a U-shaped layout. Both dorms will ideally share study rooms and a single lobby.
According to Donato, the layout is intended to share communal areas while still leaving room for private space.
Walsh said the unique design is the best of both worlds.
"I'm not going to say it's a coed hall, but they have complete access to each other, and there is 24-hour space," Walsh said. "It's not a convent or monastery."
Freshmen and sophomores will have standard-sized rooms, but juniors and seniors will have access to suites with an average size of 260 square feet. When built, the rooms will be the largest on campus.
Currently, the largest double rooms are 240 square feet. As an added bonus, senior and junior suites are separated by bathrooms, which both neighbors will share. Freshmen and sophomores must use a communal bathroom.
"Freshmen can look across at the room you might be living in when they're a junior or senior," Donato said.
Future plans also call for a coffee shop in the Haggerty lounge, intended as a meeting place for that side of campus.
"I think it will make it a more vibrant area. You'll have a whole mix of students over there," Walsh said.
Although design plans have progressed, funding has yet to materialize, according to Beauchamp. Transitioning from designing to raising funds, UP must first find benefactors before groundbreaking can begin. Ideally, two benefactors will fund one of each of the two buildings.
"We have people we are talking to, and we're hopeful, but the funding isn't in place yet," Beauchamp said.
Gregg said the administration hopes to have everything ready to go once the funding situation is worked out. Once started, construction should take roughly 18 months. If started this spring, the first opening would be in fall 2009.
Donato notes that, until benefactors are secured, nothing can be guaranteed.
"I don't know, we may only be able to build one hall," Donato said.
