After one year of construction, the Dixie State University administration dedicated the newest, largest on-campus student housing, Campus View Suites ll on Aug. 26.
The 144,897 square foot building houses 534 beds and contains 182 toilets. The facility offers ample opportunities for students to make friends and socialize with their peers at the barbeque, hammock garden, shaded area, and additions to the basketball and pickleball courts previously built with Campus View Suites I.
The building contains a common kitchen and large laundry room on each floor, a fitness room, a bicycle storage room, and study areas.
Dixie State University President Richard “Biff” Williams said the design team created the hammock garden after the plethora of hammocks hung by students on their balconies after Campus View Suites I was built.
The suites have a combination of private bedrooms, double bedrooms and semi-private bedrooms.
Williams said the university was in high demand for more student housing because as the student body grows, the housing needs to grow with it. The university resources and social life is also more accessible to students who live on campus.
“We want to make sure we have a place for freshmen, so they can connect better with the university,” Williams said. “As we have evolved as a university, we try to make sure we provide opportunities for students to live on campus.”
Williams added that the graduation rate is higher among students who live on campus compared to those who live off-campus.
Dixie State University Board of Trustees member Tiffany Wilson said one of her concerns is students’ mental health, especially through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I believe this type of housing is exactly what our students need to find the support and friendships they have been missing and longing for during this difficult time we have all been experiencing,” Wilson said. “I foresee many vicious card games and burnt dinners and lots of laughing to be had in these beautiful apartments.”
Carlos Plummer, a junior film major from Cambria, California, who is also a resident of Campus View Suites II, said living on campus from the start of his college career has provided him with a sense of belonging and a sense of connection to campus that he would not have felt otherwise.
The challenges the construction team ran into along the way did not stop the production time. Construction Manager Brian McBeth said the construction team ran into struggles like pricing increases, catastrophic weather, delays at shipping ports, trucking shortages, and covid-related illnesses keeping workers off the site.
“Any one of these challenges could have been detrimental on its own to the success of any project,” McBeth said. “As a team, we were able to be successful and work through solutions to design and build this beautiful housing facility and make sure it was completed on time and within budget.”
Seth Gubler, director of housing and resident life said during the construction of Campus View Suites I, he thought the challenge would be to build in one year, but the pandemic brought on a new level of challenges that the university administration and the construction and design team had to overcome.
“New housing has much more significance than just accomodating more students,” Williams said. “Students will build meaningful relationships, study for tests, they’ll laugh, they’ll cry, they’ll possibly meet their future significant partner, and so much more.”
A time capsule will be available in the lobby of Campus View Suites II throughout the day for students to place items in that will be opened 30 years from now.
