Clik here to view.
The new plans for the UVM dormitory on what’s currently University Place. Rendering obtained from public records in the City of Burlington.
The University of Vermont has made provisions for the coming school year to replace 391 student beds that have been temporarily eliminated while the university builds a new dorm complex.
The two larger dorms will replace the three Shoebox dorms (Buckham, Chittenden and Wills halls) and will accommodate 695 students. The facility is slated to open the fall of 2017.
In the meantime, the university has arranged for a combination of off-campus and on-campus housing that will require 234 upperclassmen (and older transfer students) to live in apartments and at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center this fall, university officials said this week.
Clik here to view.
The Shoeboxes at UVM. Courtesy photo
For the coming school year, UVM has had to find alternate housing for about half of the 700 to 800 juniors and seniors who typically live on campus, according to Annie Stevens, vice provost for student affairs.
UVM was required to come up with a plan to replace the Shoebox beds with interim housing until the new dorms were built, said Nate Wildfire, assistant director for economic development in the Burlington Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO).
“UVM made a commitment to not put any more students into the Burlington housing market, even during this change,” Wildfire said.
The off-campus housing plans include 120 student beds at Quarry Hill, a nearby apartment complex, and a lease of one of the Sheraton’s buildings for 114 beds, university officials said.
The university also recently bought a former sorority, which will add 25 more beds, Stevens said.
UVM is converting student lounges into dorm rooms and is reconfiguring existing housing to accommodate 132 more students. In all, the university will find 391 beds, UVM spokesman Enrique Corredera said.
Wildfire said UVM’s two off-campus leases with Quarry Hill and the Sheraton Hotel are “the two big buckets” addressing the university’s temporary housing needs.
“They’re providing off-campus housing for upperclassmen that essentially have little or no impact on the housing market in Burlington,” Wildfire said of the plans, which the city reviewed and approved.
Wildfire said there are about 6,110 beds on campus at UVM, or 63 percent of UVM’s undergraduate enrollment.
UVM requires that all freshmen and sophomores live on campus, but a majority of juniors and seniors move off campus, Stevens said. She said all the off-campus arrangements are being assigned to upperclassmen and older transfer students next year.
Quarry Hill, Stevens said, “is literally a hop, skip and a jump from the garage, if you’re standing at the garage on Spear Street. It’s very close to campus, and we’ll be renting a shuttle.”
The Sheraton is also close to campus, said Stevens. She said the rooms will be standard hotel rooms with private bathrooms.
Stevens said the costs will mirror the rate structure for on-campus housing, depending on what the situation is, a double with private bathroom, for example, would cost the same on- or off-campus.
For students living at the Sheraton, the meal plan on campus will be offered, and the hotel will offer student rates for meals there, too, Stevens said.
UVM began renting rooms at Quarry Hill last semester to retain the space for this coming year, Stevens said. “Champlain [College] used to house students in this same complex,” she said, and as they left last year, UVM leased the space.
Stevens said about 60 students lived there last semester.
Stevens said the university is getting a “great response” about the options being provided to fill the one-year housing crunch on campus.
“The whole idea is to not impact any other housing in the city; we want to maintain as many beds as we can for our juniors and seniors as we can, and for our transfer population,” Stevens said.
This university sent this letter to students about the off-campus housing for the coming year.
The post UVM students to live in hotel, apartment complex while new dorms are built appeared first on VTDigger.