Corrected version: Updated on Monday, Aug. 24, 2015 at 8:43 p.m. to reflect the following: UT President Sharon Gaber and interim provost John Barrett were helping a student move into Parks Tower.
The first University of Toledo students to move into a $38 million residence hall will find out quickly that the 492-bed building is not their parents’ dorm.
For starters, the new Honors Academic Village boasts flat-screen television screens at many-a-turn: In the first-floor fitness room filled with treadmills, elliptical machines, and free weights; recessed in the paneling above a faux fireplace in a lounge area furnished with low-slung, upholstered chairs; and in a computer center.
Some suites have full-sized refrigerators and granite countertops in the kitchenettes and full-sized beds in private rooms.
Look closely at the walls, painted in a warm-but-neutral palette, (no old-school, cinder block here), and you won’t spot a telephone jack. Designers didn’t deign to install outmoded contraptions for cord-bound communication.
These students are wireless.
Officials are trying to change the terminology as well as technology.
“We never call them dorms anymore,” said Kelly Bollinger, regional manager for American Campus Communities, the project’s developer and manager. “Just because it gives that connotation of … old, kind of rundown, you know, bathrooms down the hall.”
The preferred lingo is residence hall, please.
UT, Bowling Green State University, and Owens Community College start classes Monday. To prepare, Toledo and BGSU spent the summer months completing construction projects, such as UT’s new four-story hall.
The project, approved by UT trustees in 2013, sits on university property but is privately owned by the Alabama-based nonprofit Collegiate Housing Foundation through a lease agreement.
The construction cost was covered through project-based financing — without UT taking on debt or using student fees — and will be paid back with room rates collected from residents, said Matt Schroeder, the UT Foundation’s chief operating officer.
Students pay about $7,000 or $9,000 per academic year to live there, depending on the unit’s floor plan and if they have a private or shared room, Ms. Bollinger said. She said all of the units are spoken for, and more than 90 percent of the residents belong to the Jesup Scott Honors College.
“We want to build this community so that it’s so vibrant that when you’re a sophomore you’re in the housing again, when you’re a junior you’re in the housing again. Joining the honors college, it’s a lifelong membership in a community of very high-powered, intellectual people,” said Kelly Moore, interim dean of the roughly 1,700-student college.
The university plans to offer programming for honors and engineering students centered in the Honors Academic Village in an effort to foster “living-learning” communities.
The concept attracted students such as Alex Coates, an honors student and freshman from London, Ohio, who was among the first to move into the new hall last week.
“It’s very pretty,” the 17-year-old said as she loaded a large bin with boxes and bags. One thing in particular caught her attention: The comfortable-looking bed.
Her new address puts her close to classrooms and across Campus Road from the honors college offices and additional honors student housing.
The new dorm illustrates the evolution of student housing, Mr. Schroeder said. The university hopes its floor plans, amenities, and the independence it affords will appeal to upperclassmen as well as freshmen.
In addition to the nearly 500 residents living in the new dorm, UT has 3,114 on-campus beds, with an occupancy rate of 82 percent.
Honors Academic Village was built on the site of the former 330-bed Dowd-Nash-White residence halls, described by Mr. Schroeder as an aging facility that had “outlived its useful life” when it was demolished a couple years ago.
The 390-bed Academic House returns to use this year, after going dark for maintenance and renovations. Carter Hall, a 514-bed facility, was taken offline this year because its wasn’t needed. Officials are considering closing Carter permanently, but a decision has yet to be made.
Off-campus, a new development near Dorr Street and North Westwood Avenue has opened. It can house 590 students in 208 units. The project, called Edge 1120, offers rents as low as $499 a month, plus incentives. A representative said occupancy numbers were unavailable, but there are open apartments.
BGSU finished renovations of several classroom facilities including Olscamp Hall and the Education Building in time for the fall semester.
Construction continues on new Greek chapter houses and a renovation of South Hall. More than 95 percent of BGSU’s 6,100 on-campus beds are expected to be occupied.
Contact Vanessa McCray at: vmccray@theblade.com or 419-724-6065, or on Twitter @vanmccray.
First Published August 21, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
