UA News

More than a thousand students eventually will occupy the structures going up along Sixth Street.

Officially, the residence halls at The University of Arizona will open on Thursday.

Unofficially, they were open last Sunday, in large part because campus sororities have started recruiting and some of the women had nowhere else to go. 

"Sunday, we're as good as open," said Jim Van Arsdel, the director of UA residence life for the last 23 years.

The UA houses approximately 6,350 students, mostly freshmen and about 300 graduate students, and is working quickly to build more space as enrollment continues to grow. That includes two new complexes on Sixth Street that will be home to 1,088 students when they open in the fall of 2011.

The new residence hall at Sixth Street at Highland, just west of Arizona Stadium, will have room for 369 students. The five-building complex at Sixth and Euclid, south of Coronado Hall, will house 719 students. 

Van Arsdel said it won't come too soon.

"We continue to see our freshman classes increase, and we want to house as many of them as want housing," Van Arsdel said. "We're hugely challenged to do that right now."

Temporary space has been found for about 500 students by using study rooms, a handful of guest apartments and doubling up with resident assistants. Residence Life also has leased the former Alpha Chi Omega sorority house for the next three years.

In addition, the UA spent $10 million this summer on renovations to several residence halls, including new plumbing in Santa Cruz, new showers in La Paz and a new roof and interior finishes on Hopi Lodge.

There is not much of the new halls to see right now, although the basements in two buildings in the Euclid complex have been finished. The new halls also reflect the changes that have come over the years in on-campus housing.

Residence halls are now designed and programed to integrate students into University life by creating student communities.

When they open, the new halls at the UA will have modules of 32 students each, plus a resident assistant. Each group of 16 will share a bathroom and study lounge. The new halls will also include amenities such as a central lobby and a great room where students can congregate. 

Van Arsdel said research shows that students tend to do best when they are grouped into these smaller communities. He said programming these smaller communities within the larger setting is what makes the college experience memorable for students.

"It's the best part of my job and it makes us think about what we want for students, about what works and what doesn't work," he said.

"What people will remember is the community," Van Arsdel said. "They may recall something about the building, but it won't be much and won't be vivid. What will be vivid over time is their friends, and the conversations they had and hopefully what they learned."

As the UA grows, Van Arsdel expects the campus to become more vertical. Smaller and older residence halls that were once scheduled for demolition, such as Hopi and Babcock will, for the near future, remain online as enrollment grows.

"And as long as we continue to grow, I'm going to be asked to house more people," he said.