Indiana schools plan for new student housing

A new housing plan has been presented to the IU board of trustees to renovate and redesign IU housing over the next 20 years. As of now, IU has met with architects who are working on designs for the initial phase, which will open in fall of 2005, said Pat Conner, Executive Director of Residential Programs and Services.\n"Our plan is based on first developing some new housing that will provide the higher levels of privacy and autonomy that students who are sophomores, juniors, or seniors have expressed interest in," Connor said. "We will then refurbish existing residence halls that traditionally have served a predominantly first-year student population by improving amenities available to that group of students."\nOver the past four years, IU has adjusted its residential policies to allow undergraduate students who have completed their first year of study to live in on-campus apartments, freeing up rooms in the dormitories. Currently, the apartments are at 100 percent occupancy, with 25 percent of them being rented by undergraduate students, Conner said.\n"We are currently able to house all first-year students under the residency policy and current enrollment goals, while being able to offer contracts to all returning students who expressed a desire to remain on-campus," Conner said.\nSimilar projects to the one planned at IU have been going on at other Indiana universities. Private developers are planning to spend $30 million creating new housing for students and faculty at Purdue University North Central in Westville, Ind., which is located about 30 miles east of Gary.\nSlated to open in the fall of 2005, the neighborhood-style development will offer 150 apartments for students, 12 duplexes and 39 single-family housing units. Included in the plan is room for several small businesses.\nThe apartments will offer two- or three-bedroom suites, a living room, a dining room and a kitchen. Private living areas will include a bedroom, a bathroom and a study area. As for aesthetic value, plans for ponds, walking and bike paths, landscaped roads, a pool and a clubhouse are included in the proposal.\nPNC's enrollment grew this year to 3,657, with 2,042 attending full-time, according to the PNC Web site, www.pnc.edu. Over 2,000 PNC students live in surrounding cities, such as LaPorte. William Back, vice chancellor for administration at PNC, said the housing project came out of necessity and community interest.\n"The idea to create housing really came from students and community members who kept coming to us telling us they wanted housing available to them," Back said. "We are very pleased and excited because the housing is a significant change in how we can serve students and the community."\nPNC is not the only Indiana college to need new housing. Purdue Calumet in Hammond and Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne also have plans to increase living space for students.\nSlated to open fall 2004, IPFW's housing project will house up to 568 students in 220 1-, 2- or 4-bedroom apartments, said Walt Branson, IPFW Vice Chancellor of Financial Affairs. Current enrollment for this school year rose to over 11,800 students.\nAmenities for the students will include a club house, fitness areas and multi-purpose rooms.\n"We were real focused on the student programming and student activity aspects of housing because we really want it to be a lot like traditional on-campus housing, emphasizing activities they can do," Branson said. "We're really trying to emphasize a sense of community. We think adding housing will raise our retention rates and it will change the student atmosphere on campus positively."\n-- Contact staff writer Julia Blanford at jblanfor@indiana.edu