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New Residential Village Set to Meet Demands of Growing Student Body

Ground will soon be broken for the new Residential Village construction at TWU, and TWU students can expect to see completion on the project in the fall of 2019.

This new residence structure is the first new building being built on campus in over thirteen years, which was the Lowry Woods Community, and it will house 875 students. Living spaces for students will be dormitories with shared bathrooms and showers. The structure will be comprised of three buildings, tentatively named North, South and East, and it is expected to house primarily sophomore students. The village will also contain several amenities including a maker’s space, fitness center and even classrooms. The housing office will relocate from Jones Hall to the new structure, as well. The community will be co-ed, and the building facilities will be limited to the residents, just as they are in Stark and Guinn halls.

Construction on the Residential Village will cost roughly between $57 and 60 million. Being the newest residential space on campus, the Residential Village will include unique amenities that will be reflected in students’ housing charges, just as the current housing charges reflect a difference in living standards from Stark and Guinn halls to the Lowry Woods Community and the Select Apartments. According to Director of University Housing and Residence Life Jill Eckardt, a market study was conducted to see how TWU was doing compared to other public universities. TWU ranks firmly in the bottom third in the state of Texas regarding housing rates, and keeping those rates low has resulted in the sacrifice of renovation. Housing expects to begin raising room rates an average of three percent a year, every year, indefinitely, to combat this issue. These additional costs will make continued expansions like the Residential Village possible, and they will allow older TWU residence buildings to be renovated, as well. “All of this construction, it just shows people that we are ready to step up and be more than just a ‘little state school,’” said Eckardt.

In conjunction with the opening of the new Residential Village, TWU will not be renewing housing contracts with several TWU Select Apartments, allowing management to default back to the original owners. The new Residential Village will shift sophomore students out of the Lowry Woods Community, allowing the community to become the primary residence for on-campus junior and senior-level students. Housing expects the net gain between the building of the Residential Village and the closing of Select Apartments to be roughly 300 beds. This will allow future TWU students (and current first-year students) to look forward to living directly on campus for the entirety of their educations, if so desired past the first 60 hours.

 

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