By Cara Miller
Arizona Daily Wildcat
With the foundation in place and four walls surrounding it, the UA is well on its way to having another residence hall.
The new hall is scheduled to open in the fall of 1995 in Papago Residence Hall's previous location at Highland Avenue and East Fifth Street.
Jim Van Arsdel, director of Residence Life and University Housing, said the construction is on schedule and will be finished by the end of June 1995.
"We decided on the site that Papago was on because it was so central to the campus," he said. "It's an absolute terrific location on campus.
"Papago only had room for 122 students," Van Arsdel said. "This one is certainly netting out a few more." The new dorm will house 490 students, he said. Papago was demolished to make space for the new building.
Van Arsdel said Residence Life is looking forward to the increased space because in the past couple of years they have had to turn
away hundreds of students.
"And we don't like to do that," he said.
The $15,108,000 building will include living rooms, computer lab study rooms, study areas and possibly game rooms. The new hall will also be the first to offer both double rooms and a limited number of single rooms.
Residence Hall Association President Doug Mings said the new computer lab will add a lot to the residence hall as well as the surrounding area.
"The computer facilities will be a little bit larger than the ones in Kaibab-Huachuca (Residence Hall) and Gila (Residence) Hall," he said. "It will be neat for those living in the hall and a lot easier for everyone in that area."
Van Arsdel also said the new facilities and common areas will provide the kind of accommodations students want, as well as give them opportunities to get to know each other.
"I think the common areas like the game room will help build a sense of community," Mings said.
All of the first-floor walls are completed and the second floor is partially completed.
"It's a complicated schedule, but it's a little over a third of the way done," Van Arsdel said.
Mings said he was excited to see a new residence hall erected.
"I've studied the ones that have always been there, but it is really truly neat to see it being built," he said. "I'll have graduated by the time it opens, but there are plenty of resident assistants who are talking about transferring as soon as it opens."
The name of the dorm has yet to be selected, but three have been submitted by the Residence Hall Association. In keeping with the theme of naming the residence halls after counties or indigenous tribes, "La Paz" and "Tohono O'odham" have been suggested. RHA also suggested naming the hall after Frank A. Gulley in remembrance of an early campus leader.
In 1890, Gulley was the first faculty member to be appointed by the Arizona Board of Regents as a professor of agriculture and director of the Experiment Station.
Van Arsdel said the construction of the new hall contributes to the elimination of less than 150 parking spaces, but once the construction is finished, those spaces will be restored in the same location, Van Arsdel said.