The June 17 groundbreaking ceremony for the south campus dorms wasn’t just about praising the new project. University officials also spoke about future housing projects.
American Campus Communities, a private company that develops student housing projects, will create the $42 million south campus project. The project offers 844 rooms, a pool and a community center.
“I think you’re going to see University enrollment grow once this is finished,” UNM regent Jamie Koch said at the ceremony. “People will want to come here. The students will like it.”
Koch said the partnership with a private company like ACC makes new dorms possible. He said that because ACC pays for the construction and maintenance of the dorms, UNM doesn’t have to invest any money in the project.
“The problem is that the legislature does not fund money for housing,” he said. “Other universities in the state have the same problem we have. They don’t have the money.”
The dorms should be finished by August 2011. ACC will then begin another project on main campus, Koch said.
“Our next project is going to start immediately after we can find out where we’re going to build another new one on main campus,” he said.
UNM President David Schmidly also touted the importance of building more student housing on main campus after the south campus project is finished. However, he said no concrete plans have been made yet.
“We’ve got to improve our housing situation on main campus,” he said. “I don’t think we know explicitly yet exactly what we’re going to do, but we’re starting the planning right now and we’ll be engaging the students.”
Outgoing ASUNM President Monika Roberts said students have been involved in plans for the south campus student housing project since it began. She and other students visited ACC projects at other schools including Arizona State University, Texas A&M and the University of Houston, she said.
“I think right then and there when we went to those campuses and saw what ACC offered, we were sold,” she said.
Roberts said the south campus location won’t be a problem for students.
“I think south campus is developing,” she said. “I think that housing moving here is going to be awesome. It’s definitely going to be a hot spot.”
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Schmidly said past criticisms of the south campus location and layout aren’t valid.
“I don’t think the location is going to be a challenge at all. I think it’s going to be an asset,” he said.
Critics of the ACC complex voiced concern about its distance from main campus, means of transportation and sources of funding.
Schmidly cited frequent transportation to main campus from the south campus dorms, plenty of parking on site and closeness to the Student Success Center as benefits of the location.
Bill Bayless, ACC president and CEO, said at the groundbreaking that UNM worked tirelessly to produce an agreement benefiting the University. He said the regents and administration made sure the ground-lease agreement was fair.
“Regent (Gene) Gallegos was absolutely the toughest negotiation I have ever had in 18 years of doing this,” Bayless said. “He asked questions that in 50 other transactions, no one else ever raised.”
Bayless said other universities will likely use the agreement between ACC and UNM as a template.
Student Zoe Riebli said UNM has already started to gather information for future student housing projects on main campus. She said she conducts surveys with incoming freshmen during new student orientation.
“Basically we just want to know why they chose to live where they live,” she said.
She said questions on the survey include whether students are living on campus, how close they are to campus and what amenities they have where they’re choosing to live. About 1,000 surveys will be completed by the end of the summer, she said.
