Regis. Gonzaga. Jogues. Campion. Loyola.
Fairfield students are familiar with the buildings that have long graced the quad. But soon, there may be another dormatory to add to that list. A plan for a new residence hall is in progress. All locations on campus are being considered, but the most talked about location is between Campion and Jogues Hall, where the residence life trailer is currently located, according to Gary Stephenson, director of Housing Operations.
Father Jeffrey von Arx S.J., president of Fairfield University, approached Stephenson to discuss housing statistics and the possibility of building a new residence hall.
Fairfield University guarantees four years of housing to all full-time, matriculated undergraduate students.
Due to the over-occupancy in underclassman residence halls and townhouses, the university is required to deal with this issue.
“A new dorm would make much more sense than the administration building … I would rather sacrifice the quad to avoid being in a triple,” said Carolyn Manning ’06.
The class of 2009 has about 948 students, many of whom find themselves in forced triples. At the present time, about one-third of the freshman class, or 350 students, are in triples.
“If Fairfield keeps accepting a higher number of students, then a dorm needs to be built to accommodate more people,” said Matt Clinton ’06. Dorm space is tight and squeezing three into a double is even worse.”
There are currently 103 townhouses, which were originally designed to accommodate approximately 400 students. However, due to the large number of students accepted each year, there are roughly 500 students squeezed into the townhouses.
Alison Valdner ’08 feels that building new townhouse would definitely be more beneficial than a new dorm.
“New townhouses would mean juniors would not be stuck in Kostka/Claver,” she said.
Another option the university is currently exploring is providing significant funding to renovate Dolan.
Valdner disagrees and would prefer an alternative plan.
“Knock it down,” she said. “But if they knock it down, it would take forever to rebuild and there would probably be a housing shortage for a while.”
Erin Spongberg ’06 supports the university plan to refurbish Dolan and the possibility of placing a new residence hall next to it.
“Since there is no current usage for the football field, we should remove it and explore different options,” she said.
Spongberg, along with many of her peers, also wants the university to be more lenient about off-campus housing.
The university plans for the new residence hall to provide accommodations for professionals, such as the resident Jesuits. The new hall would also attempt to de-triple students and lessen the number of students living in each townhouse.
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