USU finalizes housing master plan
Utah State University’s Housing and Food Services department is finalizing a multi-year plan for more student housing on campus.
Many students became aware of the plan to change on-campus housing when they received e-mails, in their USU accounts, asking them to fill out a survey about their current housing arrangements and what they would like.
Steve Jenson, director of Housing and Food Services, said more than 16,000 e-mails were sent out to USU students. A total of 5,455 replied, which he said was an amazing response for which he was very grateful.
Final results from the online survey will not be available for a few weeks, Jenson said, but he has seen some preliminary results. He said the survey was done and is being analyzed by a national research firm, Anderson Strickler.
Jenson said there was a presentation of the master housing plan to President Kermit L. Hall recently, who liked it overall.
“There were a few minor things we needed to change overall,” Jenson said. “We’ve been readjusting the proposal and reworking some numbers, and we’re planning to move forward.”
The revised plan was originally to be presented on April 16, but Jenson said it might be moved back a few weeks.
Whitney Fleming, an assistant director of Housing and Food Services, said there are four or five phases planned out for the next 20 years. The first phase includes tearing Merrill Hall down and replacing it, as well as renovating Moen, Greaves and Reeder halls. Simultaneously, she said, a housing complex will be built on west campus, south of the Logan Institute building and north of the Haight Alumni Center.
During the second phase, which Fleming said is planned for 10 years down the road, Richards Hall and Bullen Hall would be replaced.
Fleming said she has also seen some preliminary results of the online survey, but if the final results return and are considerably different from the plan they’re working on, they would consider changing or re-evaluating their plans.
“It would be in our best interests and the university’s best interests to re-evaluate,” Fleming said of a slim, but possible, chance for a surprise-results situation. “It would be foolish not to make sure.”
Jenson said one plan conflicts with student results in how the housing complexes will be designed. A higher percentage of students liked the apartment-style rather than the suite-style housing, he said, but the plan is to build more suite-style housing.
“There’s a concern about the amount of money apartment-style housing would need,” Jenson said. “Apartment style is on the higher end of what students are willing to pay.”
Fleming said across the nation suite style is very popular. It has worked very well at other universities, such as the University of Utah, she said.
“With apartment style, there’s a lot more isolation,” Fleming said. “Freshman do a lot better if they can connect more with other students.”
Although many students say they would really like to have their own kitchen (which is what apartment style includes), she said she thinks a lot of their cooking could be done in a community kitchen (part of suite-style housing) just as well.
Many students who responded to the online survey, Fleming said, already have their own kitchens and wouldn’t like to give them up. She said she thinks if high school juniors and seniors were surveyed, the results would lean toward suite style.
Fleming said although it’s not yet known how much these housing projects will cost because plans are not finalized, the money will come from a state bond, which will have to be approved by the Legislature. She said Housing is optimistic about getting a bond approved.
-emilieholmes@cc.usu.edu