Construction on dorm underway
By: PHIL CROWLEY, Contributing Writer
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Signs of growth are present on the campus of AngeloStateUniversity visible by the construction of a new dormitory, CentennialVillage. The dorm is set to open in the fall of 2007 and is open to all students. CentennialVillage gets its name from the "Centennial Master Plan" that calls for its construction and for the construction of other dorms in the near future.
Centennial dorms are designed to offer three different living arrangements to students. One option is going to be an apartment that will have four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen including a dishwasher, and an in-unit washer and dryer. A second option is set to be an apartment design much like what is already seen in Texan Hall; two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a half kitchen. A last option is going to be a dorm room with an L shape that will house two students and promises to be quite roomy for its residents.
Apart from the modern outlook of the living arrangements, Centennial will have many convenient amenities to make residents' lives more comfortable.
"CentennialVillage will be a very modern, beautiful building with top notch facilities," Connie Frazier, director of Residence Life said.
The facilities will include a community building, theater, cyber cafe, large space for pool and other billiard games, ice machines and a large circular meeting room on the third floor for meetings of students. Along with these, residents can expect wireless internet, cable television hookups, phone lines and all other amenities that come with the other living facilities.
The Student Life Office expects CentennialVillage to fill up quickly and recommends that students apply early. Student Antonio Rangel agrees.
"I hear the new dorms are going to be very luxurious and will be in demand, so I'm probably going to apply early," Rangel said.
The dorms are being built to relieve tripling in the Massie dorms and to supply extra housing for students who want to come to ASU. Last year it's estimated by the Student Life Office that the university lost 100-200 students because they couldn't find a place for them to live.
Stephanie Bretones, from the Massie dorms, understands this all too well.
"Anything is better than being tripled up, so if there is more room in the new dorm, I will definitely apply for Centennial," Bretones said.
All this luxury comes with a steep price tag, it's estimated that CentennialVillage will cost $23 million dollars to be built by NE construction. This appears to be only the beginning, because there is a master plan designed by Randall Scott Architects to create more housing in the near future that will stretch from the Centennial site all the way back to the Massie dorms. The Student Life Office will try to collect feedback from students for their furniture preferences and any other suggestions they may have for the details of the new dormitories.
This new construction has caused a parking lot to be closed by Carr Hall. The lot closed was an A/B parking zone that according to University Police was rarely used. UPD has also said that they are doing their absolute best to protect the student parking by the Carr dorm and appear to be successful, because they have only received one complaint about the situation. The parking, according to students, doesn't seem to be a real issue.
"I always have a parking space," Delyssa Rodriguez said.
Some people haven't been as lucky though.
"I've had to park on the street, but only occasionally," Misty Lackey said.
Chief of Police James Adams and the rest of the UPD are also taking other measures to make this temporary construction as painless as possible. There is an A zone parking lot near the closed one on Avenue N that the police are planning to rezone. They would make it A/B parking to try to alleviate the situation on commuters. Of course with any construction, these problems are to be expected and will only be temporary according to UPD.
"I would just like to ask people to be patient during this and know that UPD is doing their best to fix any problems that arise, and that there will be more parking available after all is said and done," Adams said.
Adams also said that students who have transferred from bigger universities say that they had many more problems parking at their old universities than what they are experiencing now at ASU.