Husson University Town House
By Shane Althouse
Husson University will be making a new set of dorm rooms in the coming years at Husson. This was discussed and was agreed to be made on September 22, 2016. Husson University broke ground on the $5 million dollar townhouse on September 24, 2016. The new town house will be divided into 3 different department like buildings. The construction of the new apartments have started this calendar year and will most likely go until the year 2018 until it is completed. When the townhouses are completed it will consist of three apartment like town house building which will have 72 beds. The townhouses will consist of six two-story buildings. This is what Husson University President had to say about it ““the demands or issues related to students and their request of alternate style of housing, we have obviously with three of are resident halls the traditional cordial based housing and then with the living learning center being added to our portfolio in 2012 we had some of the sweet styles living, but we didn’t have the full range of apartments/ townhouse living on campus and we listened to students and students told use this is something we would live to see”. And also Student life Carl Stiles had some to add to it also, “What we did was about 2 years ago, we were hearing from students that they were interested in some type of next level of independence living on campus.
Carl Stiles also talked about who would be monitoring the Townhouses, “We will have a pair professional up there in the first phase meaning we will have a head resident. Which will be more than a RA, additional duties and office hours and things like that not quite to the level of the resident director but they will have some additional duties and there will be one for all of the first three buildings. Then as we phase in some additional growth over the next three to five years we will move forward with what are next phase of a professional staff member up there or a graduate student to supervise that area. So there will be some resident assistant level people but will be at a level higher with a different level of expectations in are traditional residence halls”.
Now the apartments will only be in use for upperclassmen so juniors and seniors and of course graduate students. Now the townhouse appliances will consist of a whole kitchen, living room or dining room. Also the bedding will consist of a normal dorm room hall bed nut in the town house rooms there will be four single bed and also 2 bathrooms. The townhouses will have a similar architectural structure as most of the buildings here at Husson University. President Clark also talked about who would be staying in the town houses, “I probably think it is probably all of the above in the sense it will benefit students, upper class students, giving them an opportunity to be in resident on campus. The President then also went to to talk about the benefits, “It makes their lives much easier, and some of our students that come from away in particular, were telling the stories of coming to campus a couple of days before the semester starts and trying to find housing quickly, this will help resolve that anxiety for them”. Carl Stiles also talked about the lottery system it will be having, “They can apply for them now, are first reiterations is we have 72 beds: 84 credits or more, and or graduate student, good academic standing, a part of that reasoning was we are looking for upper class students that might move off campus, so it is really not for first year students, not for sophomores it’s really for upperclassmen. We are doing that prior to the timeframe for the campus housing selection process so that knowing that we have 72 beds we are going to anticipate that we are going to have more than 72 people that want to live up there. So we want to give those students the opportunity through the lottery system that aren’t selected for the first round to still to still have that opportunity to select some campus housing to stay on campus whether it’s in one of the traditional halls or in the LLC in the sweets to really give students that feeling of connection”.
Sophomore Student Bryce Carter gave his input on the Townhouses, “I think it’s a good that the University is expanding. It’s good that we are getting these new buildings because we are growing as a University”.
The building will be located near the a knoll in the grassy area opposite the Richard E. Dyke Center for family business. There an estimate of 1,100 students here at Husson University that live on campus. Most of these students live in Hart, Bell, Carlisle and also the Darling Learning Center which has resident halls on the second, third, fourth and fifth floor. The first floor is resided to classes.
This has not been the only project that Husson University has been working on this year to make the campus a better living environment. Over the summer Husson University spent close to $6 million in on campus improvements. One of them was Carlisle bathrooms and showers. They also made an upgrade of the Winkin Field’s 147,000 square foot turf surface, also there was renovations made to Carlisle hall, a new weight room was made in the Gymnasium complex that the athletes use and last but not least a temporary student wellness center.
There will also be new additions in the near future for a new College of Business building. One million dollars was donated by an anonymous person toward the creation of a new interdisciplinary learning space. It will be dedicated to conceptualization, marketing, management and also some production will be made for virtual reality presentation.
Husson University President also talked about the future of the housing, ““The plans long term, strategic plans would call for an additional townhouse buildings to be constructed and a lot of that will depend on if student issues, demands student interest and the plausibility of space”.