New residence halls and parking garage added to the campus agenda
The plans for new residence halls and a parking garage has been made and the bid is set to be put forth on Jan. 4, 2013
The Wichita State administration hopes a new residence hall and parking garage centrally located on campus will help increase the living, learning community and support the increasing enrollment at WSU.
The facility will take the place of the currently existing parking lot to the south of the football stadium.
Wade Robinson, vice president of campus life and university relations, is involved with the process and is excited about the possibilities.
“All the residence halls were built in the mid- sixties,” Robinson said. “In the long term it is cheaper to put up a new building than keep doing more renovations.”
The new facility will house more students than both Brennan Halls and Wheatshocker Apartments combined and will cost more than $50 to $55 million, which does not include the new parking garage. Currently, 1,150 students can live on campus, but with the new building, the number of beds will increase to 3,000. The new residence hall is expected to house 700 residents.
Starting in the fall of 2014, Brennan Halls and Wheatshocker will no longer house students and may eventually become demolished or used for research facilities.
The new facility will target first-time freshmen and have a cafeteria on the lowest level for non-residents, faculty and staff.
WSU’s purchasing website stated, “The building shall be substantially complete by July 15, 2014 with Certificate of Occupancy obtained by August 1, 2014 so that it may be ready for students to move in by the Fall Semester 2014.”
The university administration is looking for developers to build the facility. A bid request has been issued with the selection to be made on Jan. 4, 2013.
“Planning for the new residence hall is progressing and the university is issuing a Request for Qualifications for a prospective developer,” WSU President John Bardo said. “It is anticipated that the developer will be selected in the early spring semester and it is projected that, assuming there are no unexpected site issues or overly bad weather, that the building will be open for the fall of 2014. You will be kept informed as the process gets underway.”
The fully-furnished room plans are for units including four private bedrooms, two baths, and a living area. Each floor will be equipped with a kitchenette, laundry facility and a lounge.
Robinson said the housing project is an auxiliary unit supported by rent revenues and will not affect student fees.
Director of Housing Steve Larson is responsible for building community and programs to change the outlook students have regarding on-campus housing at WSU.
“It’s hard to build that sense of community here when we are so far from campus,” Larson said. “I want people to stay. I want them to say, ‘Yeah, I want to live in these cool new residence halls instead of, well, I have to live here, they are making me.’”
Larson has participated in building four residence halls at other universities, and made significant improvements to Fairmount’s facilities already: adding more landscaping, new basketball goals, and making the housing contract more user-friendly for international students.
Larson and his team want to increase the cohesion between academia and housing, creating more of a living and learning environment for residents by having professors come to the students.
WSU’s Purchasing website says, “Two classroom/multi-functional spaces that can accommodate up to 50 students per classroom in a seating pattern of moveable tables and high tech wireless access points, with ample storage for the moveable furniture,” when describing these learning spaces that will be located inside the new residence halls.
Currently, only 8 percent of students live on campus, which is why Larson wants to attract upperclassmen who live in apartments after their first year.
“It was cheaper to move into an apartment. I would have stayed if the rates had been better,” sophomore Jesse Cumberland said.
Cumberland enjoyed living in the dorms during her freshman year, but says the new facility could have better lounges, laundry facilities and bigger rooms in general.
Robinson said the new facility will cost more, but that the prices will still be competitive and they want to keep costs affordable for students.
To accommodate the growing population of students on campus, they are also constructing a parking garage that generally costs $15,000 per stall compared to $1,000 it costs for a flat paved stall.
“Construction has to start around March,” Robinson said. “We will open this at the start of fall semester of 2014. It is an aggressive time frame and we need to move soon.”
The new residence halls will use the proximity card system to increase longevity of cards and will have built-in tornado shelters.
