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The fate of six oaks on the campus of the University of Louisiana are getting most of the attention, but it is a $140 million expansion project that put them in danger in the first place.
The university currently only has dorm space for 11 percent of its roughly 17,000 students, while the national average is 25 percent
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William Johnson
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To meet that need, the university is in the process of adding roughly 1,200 student apartments.
The first new dorm, including an 800-space parking garage, is set to open in August. Two more new dorms, in what is known as the Rose Garden area, are set to open in January of 2012.
Together, the new construction is designed to almost double dorm space on campus, which UL President Dr. Joseph Savoie said is important on many levels.
"Many studies show that living on campus enhances and supports a student's success in college," Savoie said.
"We want to help our students succeed and we want to do this by engaging them. Living on campus helps facilitate that," Savoie said.
Bill Crist, the campus' director of physical plant, who is overseeing the current building effort, said the current dorms, many dating from the 1960s or earlier, are in desperate need of replacement.
"Our dorms were recently ranked the eighth worse in the nation," Crist said. "If we are going to attract the best and brightest, we have to upgrade our facilities."
Freshman Meghen Milliner, who currently lives in Randolph Hall, said an upgrade is desperately needed.
"It's miserable," she said of her dorm experience. "It is filthy and really, really outdated."
Milliner finds her dorm so bad, she said she spends as little time there as possible, staying with an aunt in the city whenever she can.
Crist said such experiences should soon be a thing of the past.
Also under construction are a new softball field and a 20,000-square-foot weight room at the health and physical education building, both of which are set to open in March. The current building project will also upgrade the student union.
Work on the Picard Center for Child Development in the University Research Park is also nearing completion, with plans calling for it to be ready by June.
But it is the new dorms that are generating most of attention by students.
"I'd be excited to move into the new dorms," said freshman Rachel Guasp. "The dust (from the construction) bothers me, but I want to live there."
While the current dorms feature community showers and other outdated facilities, Crist said the new dorms will have individual rooms arranged into suites with semi-private bathrooms — one for every two students.
The suites will also be grouped into learning centers within each dorm, each with its own study and gathering space.
"All the band members or another academic discipline will be be housed together," Crist said. "All the dorms will be broken down into blocks of 40."
He said these learning communities are designed to allow students to feel more a part of the university community, which is especially important for younger students.
While everyone agrees the new facilities are clearly needed, many students think the new buildings shouldn't be the university's priority at this time.
"The dorms are in horrible condition, but I'd rather see the philosophy department saved," said junior Jeff Broussard.
"I'm concerned with all the budget cuts," agreed senior Hannah Rabalais.
While UL, like all state universities, is currently facing heavy budget cuts from the state, Crist said those cuts are not impacting these projects.
Instead, the university is funding the dorm project through bonds, with the fees the students pay for housing being used to retire the bonds.
Crist said the state's budget difficulties, the result of a faltering economy, are actually helping to push the various projects forward at this time.
"Construction costs are at a low point and interest rates are low. It is the right time," Crist said.
The other reason is that the local economy can use a boost.
"This creates construction jobs. It should help our local economy at a time when it is at a low ebb," Crist said.
The other major project set to begin soon is an upgrade to the student union, and that too is being paid for by the students.
Students have been paying a special fee to upgrade the union since 2002, which has so far brought in about $14 million of the project's estimated $37 million construction cost.
Crist said those fees will remain in place and will go towards retiring the construction bonds.
The union project will keep the wings of the current building in place — the ballroom and bookstore — but will replace the center section and add about 50,000 square feet to the building.
Crist thinks the redesign will make the union what it should be — the center of student life.
"Our cypress lake is one of the most beautiful features we have on campus, but the current union turns its back to it," Crist said.
"The new union will wrap around and integrate the lake into its design. I think it will be a really beautiful, scenic place and will energize the area," Crist said.
The current building also really has no obvious entrance, but the new design will change that as well.
"It will now have a nice entrance on McKinley Street. It will invite you in," Crist said.
He said the new union will be be connected by a breezeway to the dorms that will be going up in the Rose Garden area.
"We will have outdoor coffee shops, cafes and patios to create public spaces," Crist said. "The union will be integrated with the new housing to hopefully generate high energy," Crist said.
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