“Sardines in a tin” is not a phrase people want to associate with dorm life.
But in August, 90 students moved in to triple-student dorm rooms.
Now the Lobo Development Corporation and the Board of Regents are working to provide more on-campus housing for students, said Kim Murphy, UNM planning officer.
The Master Plan includes a new residence hall for upperclassmen, which would likely be built on south campus, he said.
“This is part of an overall strategy to add about 2,000 new beds to our inventory of on-campus housing,” he said. “We currently have about 2,400 beds, and we’re shooting to get somewhere around 4,500 total beds at the completion of this multi-year project.”
The Regents’ Finance and Facilities Committee met Sept. 21 to vote on the Master Plan agreement with American Campus Communities, a student-housing developer.
Murphy said there will be about 800 beds in phase one of the project, and the rooms will be mostly reserved for upperclassmen. The total project cost for phase one is about $40 million.
“The first phase of housing that ACC designed is for upper division students, and they have proposed that we locate it on University property near main campus, as close as we can,” he said. “But it wouldn’t actually be on main campus, because that housing is reserved for freshmen and undergraduate students.”
Steve Beffort, vice president for Institutional Support Services, said dorms at the south campus site would be designed for upperclassmen.
Beffort said the Regents should vote on approving the residence hall at their Sept. 29 meeting.
“Hopefully they will approve the terms of the agreement, and then once they do that we’ll start negotiating exactly what that first phase would be,” he said.
Murphy said putting the residence hall south of Cesar Chavez would help community development.
“With the student population, it’s going to make commercial or retail services more feasible because you have a population that can use those services,” he said.
Faculty Senate President Doug Fields said UNM should avoid sprawling development because there is still space near campus.
“UNM should take a closer look at using the space on the southwest corner of Lomas and University for the phase one development,” Fields said in an e-mail.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
“The land there is owned by both UNM and the Sandia Foundation, and some discussion should take place with them about using this land.”
Murphy said the opening of a residence hall has to coincide with the new school year, so it must get started as soon as possible.
“The timing is critical for these housing projects. It can only be opened in August of a year,” he said. “In order to hit an August 2011 opening, they’ve really got to start construction in April of 2010.”
Fields said the Faculty Senate passed a resolution to delay the voting on the Master Plan until the UNM community and neighborhood associations have more time to express their concerns.
