Campus Crusade

Higher Education

Adding Beds
From tiny New College with 200 beds to USF and UNF with 1,000 apiece, new dorms will be popping up across Florida in the next three years. Paid for by housing fees, they -- like parking garages -- don't compete with classrooms for state tax money. Private Jacksonville University is working on a 500-bed dorm as it tries to nearly double enrollment over the next seven to eight years to 4,500 to 5,000 students. By the way, the bathroom down the hall is yesteryear's design. Most configurations now call for suites with a shared bathroom. At private Nova Southeastern University, 80% of new dorm rooms will be private while the rest will hold two beds. It's a market-based decision. George L. Hanbury II, Nova's chief operating officer, says research shows 75% of new college students have never shared a room at home.

Gathering Places
At least seven of Florida's 11 public universities and colleges -- and several of the private ones -- have new student unions under way, planned or under renovation. Cumulative price tag: More than $130 million, and that doesn't include millions being spent on career centers and other student support facilities, intramural fields and other amenities.

Why the focus on unions? "You're trying to maintain whatever competitive position you can in the marketplace," says William Abare Jr., president of private Flagler College in St. Augustine, which is spending $12.3 million to build its first freestanding union. "Every college has got one, and you are at a competitive disadvantage if you don't have one. It's just not (competition) for students. It's competition for faculty, and it's competition for private resources" -- that is, donations. Competition also explains the alumni center projects on the drawing boards in Florida.

Private Plans
Public universities aren't the only schools with big building projects. Nova Southeastern is constructing a $24-million research center housing the U.S. Geological Survey and labs for university scientists. The school is also developing a $240-million, 2 million-sq.-ft. "academical village" that encompasses a medical center, offices, apartments, a hotel, conference center and retail space. Meanwhile, the University of Miami is building a 180,000-sq.-ft. biomedical research facility with plans for a twin building in three years, along with an 850,000-sq.-ft., 14-story building for clinic space. A 14-story, 380,000-sq.-ft. clinical research building opened in December.

Tags: Education, Housing/Construction