Nisson Towers will be torn down and replaced by Campus View Suites III.
Utah Tech University had an increase in enrollment and welcomed its largest freshman class to date this year. As a result, student housing has been completely filled and students are searching for suitable housing.
Construction for CVS III is expected to begin in Spring 2023 and finish in July 2024. Students will be able to move in August 2024 for the fall semester.
CVS III will be the largest of the CVS buildings. The new building was originally planned to house 500 students, but after the increase in enrollment, it is now expected to house 563 students. After tearing down Nisson Towers, there will be a total of 401 student beds available on campus including CVS I and II upon the completion of CVS III.
Brad Last, vice president of advancement and development, said: “Given that current housing is essentially full and that private developers are not able to meet the demand for a growing student enrollment, university leadership feels that adding student housing is necessary to accommodate student demands and support the ongoing growth and development of the university.”
Paul Morris, vice president of administrative affairs, said with the increase in student housing, more parking will be required as 60% of students living on-campus bring their cars to university with them. The old Whitehead Education Building is planned to be torn down this fall and replaced with a new parking lot. This new parking lot will provide an additional 150 parking stalls for students. The grass area north of the new science building will also be turned into parking, providing around 80-90 parking stalls.
“These new stalls along with the recently completed softball parking lot and Atwood Innovation plaza parking lot, under construction, should provide more than enough stalls to meet the increased parking demand of CV III,” said Morris.
Seth Gubler, executive director of auxiliaries and director housing, said it’s difficult to know if CVS III will be enough for the continuing growth of Utah Tech.
“It’s difficult to gauge because we cannot predict how enrollment will grow,” Gubler said. “It could go either way. This year we still had openings in on-campus housing when classes started, so it’s possible that this additional building will be sufficient.”
University leaders take into consideration what current and future students needs are.
Last said it really comes down to the question ‘Are the needs of current and future students being met by current university and private student housing?’
As of now, there are no future plans for additional student housing, but university leadership is always looking down the road and considering long-term options to fit student needs.
“The university simply will not be able to meet ongoing demands without the help of the private sector,” Last said.
