New dorm needed on campus from MWSU Campus Watch on Vimeo.

As enrollment increases, so does the demand for on-campus housing. With more than 200 beds being subleased off campus, new residence halls are definitely needed.

Michael Mills, Director of Housing, says it’s hard to recruit new freshmen and grow the university if they have nowhere to live.

“Last year we were short by about 93 beds. This year it looks like we could be short somewhere between 200 and 300 beds. And as the university continues to grow, and as our enrollment increases, especially through new freshmen, we’re definitely going to need new bed space,” Mills said.

Mills says it takes an estimated two years to build a new housing facility.
However, before any ground can be broken, certain criteria must be met.

“Before we can actually ever build a new facility, what we would do is ask our board of regents for permission to go out and select an architect to help us design what we can work with, to see what it will look like, where it should be placed, the number of beds, the configuration; whether its private bedrooms, non- private bedrooms, private baths, community baths, those types of things we would work with the architect to do that first,” Mills said.

Through focus groups run by the selected architect, students will be able to voice their opinion on the style and structure of the new dorm.

Ian Thompson, mass communication student, says he hopes for better amenities and entertainment space to help make the residence hall feel more like home.

“Probably just make the rooms a little larger – maybe have like more study rooms, you know more places to sit and hang out in because you need places to chill with your friends. So if say like maybe a game room, and then you have like a study room, and then you have different floors of different things to do,” Thompson said.

At the earliest, the new dorm is projected to be completed by fall of 2016.