Freshmen wait until 2004

The freshman residency requirement has been postponed until Fall 2004 due to delays in construction President Rosemary DePaolo announced Wednesday.

“Because of weather, because of materials, because of all the things that can happen with a multi-million dollar project, we had construction delays. This means that although we will have the number of beds we need, they won’t all be new beds in new housing for freshmen. Therefore I have made the decision to delay, I want to stress that, simply to postpone the freshman residency requirement until Fall 2004,” said DePaolo.

GC&SU has engaged and almost completed its phase of a housing project that totals about 56 million dollars.

The university began discussions about what it meant to be the state’s public liberal arts university in 1997. One component the university sought after was to have a true living and learning environment. That began the discussion of having a freshman residency requirement requiring all freshmen to live on campus.

“We knew all of the national studies showed that students who did live on campus, did better academically, engaged with the university, developed more leadership skills, and so we really felt that was an essential component of everything we wanted to do.

The only reason we didn’t implement it immediately was because we wanted it to coincide with new student housing. We wanted the quality of that student housing to be such that we could design an entire academic and total developmental program around student housing,” said DePaolo.

Parkhurst and Foundation Halls are nearing completion for their opening in mid- February. Centennial Village, Parkhurst and Foundation are designed for freshmen and sophomores on main campus offering more than the existing dorms.

“The suites are spectacular,” added DePaolo. “They have very dramatic staircases in them, they are just lovely, the bedrooms are great, the bathroom facilities are a tremendous improvement from the old ones and we are really pleased.”

None of the historic buildings will be torn down. Sanford will be renovated. Wells and Adams will be demolished and the new Wells and Adams will be built in its place. Students will be moved from Terrell and it will be renovated and used for other activities. Napier will also be torn down and replaced with a new Napier Hall.

The new housing will have computer rooms and classrooms. There are expectations to have programs and classes in the new buildings. “These classrooms will not be typical classrooms but will be located where the students live in the residence halls,” said DePaolo.

Currently a pilot program called FOCUS – Faculty Outside the Classroom with University Students – is underway in Napier Hall.

“In the pilot program, the faculty person is paired with a resident assistant,” said Chad Clark, assistant director for Residence Education in University Housing. “The faculty can get to know the residents on that floor so that they will be seen as a regular person. We are trying to build relationships so that students are more comfortable talking with their professors and going to their offices.”

DePaolo was in agreement.

“All of education works best when it’s personal, when students and faculty interact closely,” said DePaolo.

The change in requirements will add time to the already tight schedule.

“It certainly helps to have the deadline postponed to a later date. It’s a tight project anyway, trying to compress into the schedule that we had,” said Rick Ruark, the associate director of Plant Operations. “The next phase was to be completed by August and we haven’t moved into Parkhurst and Foundation yet. We still have to vacate Adams and Wells to tear those buildings down and it was going to make it real tough to meet the deadline.”

Some students find it a relief to be free from living on campus. This could come from a desired apartment style life or from being a local commuting student.

“I find it a relief now that the anticipation is over,” said Matt Gale a joint enrollment student who is planning on attending the university in the fall. “To think that I would have to move up the street twenty-three miles seems a bit much when I could have the comfort of my own house and still be able to attend functions on and around campus.”

Over 80 percent of freshmen have chosen to live on campus.

“This coming fall we will actually be able to house 1,573 students as opposed to 1036 students,” said Dr. Paul Jahr, director of University Housing. “So there is actually a significant increase in the number of beds, they are just not where we would like them to be.”

Students realize the benefits of on campus living. Students are encouraged to live on campus, but there are no terms requiring freshmen to live on campus until fall 2004.

“We are so committed to having this freshman residency requirement as the highest experience of the highest quality that we just decided to postpone it,” said DePaolo. “We are really pleased with the way this is coming along and I wish we could implement it all this Fall, but it was a tough decision to make because we have the number of beds we need, I just wanted it all to be stellar.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 31 2003. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry