South Campus residents attended forums Tuesday in Ehringhaus and Craige residence halls to exchange questions and ideas about housing construction. The Department of Housing and Residential Education presented brief descriptions of the new facilities and gathered student feedback.
Housing department Director Christopher Payne said Tuesday's meetings were the first in a six-part series of forums. "Open forums are scheduled throughout campus to involve all students who might be interested in attending," Payne said. "It's an opportunity to share information and listen to comments and questions from students that we can include in our plan to move forward."
During the forums, Payne and Lisa Wells, assistant housing department director, outlined the amenities of the four buildings being built adjacent to Ehringhaus, Morrison, Craige and Hinton James residence halls. Construction of the residence halls, which began last fall, is scheduled to be completed by fall 2002, and the halls' openings will create 900 new bed spaces.
Wells said the halls will increase the intellectual climate on campus. "These are not just places to live -- they are places for faculty offices and seminar spaces to create an academic bridge from the southern region to the heart of campus," she said.
Wells also addressed the names of the new buildings, an issue which has not yet been officially resolved. "Because of the long nature of the naming process, the housing department is recommending that the University give interim names of Morrison-South, Ehringhaus-South, Hinton James-North and Craige-North to the buildings," she said.
Wells said the halls will have air-conditioned suites with every two rooms joined by a private bathroom. Each floor will offer study lounges and common areas.
A campuswide rate increase for residents in air-conditioned rooms will absorb the costs of air-conditioning the new buildings. Current rates are $1,400 per semester for a non-air-conditioned room and $1,585 for an air-conditioned room, but the new halls will widen the differential between the two.
The University plans to give current South Campus residents priority for the new halls during the housing assignment process. "We asked students in a survey what their thoughts were on the assignment process," Wells said. "Our recommendation at this point is that assignments should be made based on academic class, with students who lived through the construction for two years getting priority."
Some students said they want to live in the new halls but aren't sure of their chances. "I'm interested in living in the dorms, but I can't control the fact that I came here this year," said Justin Pentz, a freshman living in Ehringhaus. "But I've had to suffer through the construction as well." Jennifer Stone, a freshman from Cary, expressed concern about the proposed rate increases. "I think people living in the dorms should have to foot a little bit more of the bill because they are getting to live somewhere nicer than the other students -- it's almost like Granville," she said.
