As part of a multiphase replacement plan to construct new buildings on campus, construction of two new residence halls could begin as early as this spring, if the Board of Trustees approves.

The building of the two residence halls would enact the first phase of a seven to 10 year plan proposed by Capstone Development to replace older buildings on campus with newer facilities, said Vice President of Student Affairs David Shields.

“The plan allows us to decide whether or not we want to move forward with each individual phase as the plan progresses,” Shields said.  

The proposed residence halls will be located behind Hawthorne and Covington Halls and will house freshman, if the decision is made to begin construction, he said.

“Right now, phase one is in the works — in the design phase,” Shields said. “Preliminary work is being done now to put things in place so that we will be prepared, if we go forward with the plans to construct the two new residence halls.”

The construction on campus is worth the inconveniences that it could cause as long as the school, overall, is being upgraded, said sophomore Slaton Zills.

“Upgrading our campus is worth having the construction here, even if there are inconveniences that result from it,” Zills said. “And Rivers is so crowded that I hope the new facilities will help with that.”

The preliminary work being done includes looking into the quality of the land itself to see if it is suitable to build on, said Director of Facilities Administration and Planning Michael Gautney.

“Before we can build, we have to take into account several factors: the geology of the land must be considered to see if we can even build there, the affordability of the new housing must be considered and the amount of space available in the prospective areas must be taken into account,” Gautney said. “We have to make sure there is enough room to build there.”

Affordability is a condition for sophomore Lily Wallace’s approval of the construction of new housing, she said.

“If expenses of living on campus or tuition are raised, I think people are just going to end up at Division I schools,” Wallace said. “In that case, I think the construction would be a bad idea—especially since I had to move out of LaGrange because it was too expensive.”

Gage Prince, a junior, hopes the construction will not affect the operation of other campus facilities, he said.

“As long as none of the other campus facilities are negatively affected by the construction, I think that building the new dorms is a good idea,” Prince said.

Campus parking will not be negatively affected by the construction, Shields said.

“That area of campus does not have parking that will be lost to construction if we decide to build,” Shields said. “There will probably be some parking that comes with the buildings that is directly accessible to the entrances, but no major parking changes will come out of this.”

The building of the new dorms will complement the University Success Center Initiative and First Year Experience Program, Shields said.

“Although the new residence halls are going to house freshmen, we are not considering building them as part of the live-on requirement,” Shields said. “They will just complement that initiative.”