Over the last two decades, the university’s undergraduate enrollment has increased significantly, yet our on-campus housing capacity for undergraduate students has not kept pace. In 2004, the university’s undergraduate student-to-bed ratio was 40 percent, but today it has dropped to just 28 percent. The North Quad residence, built in 2010 to provide 450 beds, was the first new undergraduate residence hall built on campus in 40 years.
Demand among students for affordable, on-campus housing on or near Central Campus continues to rise. To meet the needs of our growing student body and ensure excellence in the overall undergraduate experience, we propose to develop a new 2,300-bed undergraduate student residence and dining facility on the current Elbel Field site, between Hoover Avenue and Hill Street. To enable this project, we will also relocate the Marching Band practice field one block north, on the 6.5 acre site west of the Sports Coliseum owned by the university.
This new facility, on the current Elbel Field site, between Hoover Avenue and Hill Street, will enable the university to respond to the increasing demand among students for affordable, on-campus housing on or near Central Campus and better meet the needs of our growing student body. It will also help ensure continued excellence in the overall undergraduate experience.