Housing services distribute survey over WebMail
The future of Housing and Food Services needs some attention.
In the form of an Aggie opinion, please.
Feedback — in abundant amounts, especially from current Utah State University students — is precisely what Steve Jenson, director of Housing and Food Services, is attempting to generate through the distribution of an e-mail about future on-campus housing.
“Even though it won’t impact students now,” Jenson said in reference to the projected two phases and 10 to 20 years the entire project will consume before completion. “We hope students will take advantage of the e-mail opportunity. The critical information we obtain [from students] will help direct our decisions.”
The message, which will be distributed in the next couple of weeks via the WebMail system, will showcase some proposed housing plans that USU and Sasaki Associates have spent months negotiating. The message will include some proposed sites, graphics and video clips.
One area Jenson said he hopes to have detailed response to is the issue of parking. Some of the proposed plans will place parking lots at a much farther distance from the housing units.
Joli Johanson, a junior majoring in education and a former resident of Snow Hall, said paying particular attention to parking issues is a wise decision by Jenson. She said she would be concerned about future parking issues, as she has already experienced some.
“The lot was usually too full, which made it difficult for residents to find a spot, and available visitor parking was minimal,” Johanson said. “As a result, visitors were often ticketed for street or residential lot parking violations.”
New eateries, the Taggart Student Center and basically any other student needs may be made more accessible through the new accommodations. Jenson said he wonders, are such parking proposals acceptable?
Students will have about two weeks to review, ponder and respond to such questions, and a typical response should only take a few minutes, he said.
USU freshman Jamin Keith, who opted against on-campus housing, said the proposals sound like a great concept.
“If I had to do it over again, I’d choose to start on campus,” Keith said.
If USU continues to grow as expected, the first phase of the proposed plans will develop additional housing for singles, Jenson said, with about equal space for private and shared rooms.
As demographics at USU change, the second phase will be more targeted toward graduate students. Family housing will be the final addition of the proposed plans.
As could well be expected, money is one of the major factors driving the e-mail distribution of the housing proposal, and the goal is to obtain as much student feedback as possible.
Jenson encourages students to respond to the e-mail and take advantage of the opportunity to supply the future of USU with the critical data required for decision making.
“It would be a shame to go through it all and not give students what they want,” he said.
–hilj@cc.usu.edu