The recent dedication of USU Eastern’s Blanding Campus Administration Building was done with the rumbling of heavy equipment in the air. Excavation is already underway for new and much-needed housing on the 600-student campus.
Front-end loaders are carving out a site that will eventually room up to 74 students and more than double housing capacity on the 150-acre campus of Utah State University-College of Eastern Utah. Plans are to start moving students in by spring of 2013. And it can’t come soon enough, said Kol Conway, housing and food services director.
The campus has experienced a housing overflow for the past four years. Early on it began to reach out to local motel owners to house students in their rooms.
USU Eastern uniquely draws some 65 percent of its student body from the nearby Navajo Reservation. “We have reached our capacity,” Wilson said. “Parents want their children to be able to live on campus, and we want them to be able to as well. There is tremendous value, particularly with freshmen students, having a positive campus life experience.”
Wilson said the campus has exceptional facilities and resources. Students who are able to live on campus stand the most to benefit from those offerings. And word has gotten out as the waiting list continues to grow.
The 17,200-square-foot building will break from tradition and consist, instead, of suites, common areas and kitchenettes. Housing units will either contain three or four bedroom units with two students per bedroom. Private room suites will also be available, Conway said. San Juan Record
