Planning for dorms project now underway

Jennifer Etsitty Arizona Daily Wildcat Peeling paint on a rail at UA residence hall Babcock Inn is prominent. University employees are currently doing nothing to renovate the deteriorating building but ABOR approved building a new dorm with 700 rooms.

With the Arizona Board of Regents' blessing, the University of Arizona has begun a $29 to $34 million project to build the new dorms and eliminate Babcock, Hopi, Corleone and Sierra halls.

Students should be sleeping inside the new buildings by fall semester of 2001, and rent will raise by 7.5 to 9 percent for all residents, according to the UA's proposal to the regents.

Jim Van Arsdel, UA's director of Residence Life, said the new halls, which will house about 700 students, will be placed in a prime on-campus spot.

"We expect them to be located on the west side of (North) Highland Avenue (north of East Sixth Street)," he said. "It's regarded as the best location on campus with regards to proximity."

The site will take over an area now occupied by the physical resources motor pool, across the street from La Paz Residence Hall.

Design should be completed by 1999, with construction starting in 2000, the UA's proposal states.

Van Arsdel said the UA facilities design and construction department will oversee the project.

He said building a sense of community motivated the concept behind the new halls.

"The idea behind this is 'new-urbanism'," he said. "It's a city planning concept that values the American small town idea. It's creating smaller neighborhoods within big cities."

Splashed throughout the UA's proposal are notifications that Residence Life will be moving out of its Babcock offices.

According to the proposal, the location and quality of the existing office space in Babcock inhibits "effective program management."

The new site is to be "within an on-campus student residential community," the proposal states.

It also suggests "potentially adverse effects" if the new buildings aren't completed, including "increased dissatisfaction and stress among students, lower yield on admissions applications, lower retention and graduation rates and reduced learning opportunities."

But some feel Residence Life has neglected the halls that will be razed once the new, more advanced buildings are erected.

Sam McConnell, president of Babcock's hall government, said residents would like to see the hall painted.

"We just want it to look nice," he said.

Residence Life has turned the students' requests down, standing by its plan to not waste money on dying halls, McConnell said.

"We have the oldest furniture in all the halls," he said, adding that Residence Life denied a request to have Plexiglas installed on red balcony rails so residents don't get splinters.

"People want to live in a respectable place," he said.

Van Arsdel said the department will not make long-term investments in buildings like Babcock.

"It would be irresponsible to spend student money on something that might be gone next year," he said.

David J. Cieslak can be reached via e-mail at David.J.Cieslak@wildcat.arizona.edu.