New C of C housing feels more like home
You won't find any communal shower rooms in the two new residence halls at the College of Charleston.
You will find high-speed Internet, cable television, striking city views, more- spacious rooms for freshmen, three- to five-bedroom apartments for upperclassmen and high-tech laundry rooms that allow students to look online to find out whether a machine is available or whether their loads are done.
The new buildings are important, housing facilities director Michael Turner said. The college needed more housing space, and it wanted to encourage more students, especially upperclassmen, to live on campus. College officials want to establish a stronger campus community, he said, "instead of rolling up the sidewalks at night."
Tavia Sessoms, the college's director of housing administrative services, said encouraging students to continue to live on campus after their first year can be tough. They want the freedom and amenities that off-campus apartments offer, she said. Most students, she said, are used to having access to the Internet and cable television. And most have never shared a bedroom prior to coming to college.
The George Street Apartments will give students "the freedom of an apartment with all the amenities," she said.
The George Street Apartments and Liberty Street Residence Hall both will be fully occupied when students move in Aug. 15, Sessoms said, and both buildings have waiting lists. There is, however, some housing available in some of the other residence halls on campus, she said.
The college now will have on-campus housing space for 3,393 students, up from 2,760 last year, Sessoms said.
The 122,000-square-foot Liberty Street Residence Hall will house 420 freshmen in shared dormitory rooms. The building has a bathroom for every four residents. The 90,000-square-foot George Street Apartments has space for 199 upperclassmen.
A cafeteria on the first floor of the Liberty Street building will offer students dining options including Mongolian Barbecue, brick-oven pizza, and a produce market with fruit and salads, Turner said.
The residence halls, which cost about $58 million, are connected by a 600-space parking garage that the city of Charleston will manage, college spokesman Mike Robertson said.
The city will lease 200 spaces to the college. The college in turn will lease the spaces to students for $600 per semester, he said.
Officials said the first floor of the George Street building is set aside for retail businesses, including a CVS/pharmacy.
Reach Diane Knich at 937-5491 or dknich@postandcourier.com.
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Comments
mac0cm4 (anonymous) says...
Can you hear it? I can hear it...tax money being sucked down the tubes by a publicly (ie..tax dollars) funded institution...
August 6, 2007 at 6:27 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
whazzat (anonymous) says...
In regard to public money being spent: Isn't developing, supporting, and maintaining public services like education part of the reason we pay taxes? It's a shame that more people around here aren't willing to view taxation like this. If we weren't so selfish and were more willing to invest in our public services, perhaps we would ultimately end up with a more educated populace...one that's able to help figure out how to peacefully coexist with the rest of the planet. Then we could stop spending so much money on "defense" and REALLY provide citizens with a tax break.
August 6, 2007 at 11:40 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
mac0cm4 (anonymous) says...
Must be nice living in that utopia.
The issue is that money is spent on such things as comfort items instead of fixing the educational system. It'd be nice if they would apply some of that money to fixing the lower educational system instead of things like this. Glad that a college kid will enjoy a shiny new dorm, but Junior is in a 20 year old middle school building. The new lower education buildings that are built are built like mansions with fancy cafeterias and all that useless crap. Screw the creature comforts, fix the problems first, then work on the aesthetics!
August 6, 2007 at 2:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
whazzat (anonymous) says...
Yeah. A happy, well-fed, educated populace certainly would be closer to a utopia.
Sounds like we're in agreement, though. People have to be willing to pay into the system in order to get effective results. Now...what the state does with the dough once it gets it from us is a separate problem. That's when we have to shout and stomp our feet and insist that the money goes to the right places. We're not so good at that. Instead, most people just want to stop the flow of dollars...which certainly isn't going to help anything.
Interestingly enough, it looks like College of Charleston receives less than 1/4 of its operating budget from the state...and most of that money goes to salaries, employee insurance, etc. The majority of its income appears to come from tuition, fees, etc. In fact, their on-campus housing fees are quite high...so I'm sure a big hunk of that new building came from parents' checkbooks. In any case, the good news is that if you don't like the way CofC spends its money, you don't have to send them your business! Capitalism at work!
Cheers.
August 6, 2007 at 2:52 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
native1 (anonymous) says...
Well said, whazzat. Kudos for not taking everything you read at face value and reacting. Digging deeper is almost always warranted and I tip my hat at folks who do so.
August 6, 2007 at 5:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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