The flurry of construction on campus at Colorado Mesa University isn’t slowing down with around $100 million in capital projects planned for this year, including more student housing and a new food hall.
While some universities seem to grow for the sake of growth, CMU President John Marshall said the reasons for the school’s building plans are geared toward keeping it affordable for students.
“The gap between families’ ability to go to college and these sort of private, brand-name institutions has just grown so dramatically that I think a lot of families are really wondering if college is even possible in their future,” Marshall said. “I think what we are trying to do with all of the work we’re doing is protecting a pathway forward.”
Marshall pointed toward the affordability of student housing as an area that used to be an advantage for CMU and its students. However, the recent rise in housing costs in Mesa County has affected students.
“For many, many years housing costs were a strategic advantage for us,” Marshall said. “That’s no longer true. We’ve lost a lot of that buying power over the last three years with property values and rents going up so high locally. What that’s doing is creating a lot of pressure for students to be able to live on campus because it’s becoming harder and harder to find or afford a place in town.”
MORE CAMPUS HOUSING
To address these rising costs and make more room for students who want to live on campus, CMU is building a new residence hall. The student housing project, which is already under construction adjacent to the recently completed Asteria Theater, is called Centennial Village. When completed, it will be more than 100,000 square feet and provide 310 beds.
The new housing will be apartment style and is intended for sophomores and possibly other upperclassmen, Marshall said. He said it will make room for freshman in existing on-campus housing by providing new beds for returning students. Keeping costs down is a major focus as well.
“The cost of construction has been so challenging that this will be one of the most efficient apartment complexes we’ve ever built,” he said.
Even with the new student housing under construction, Marshall said they may have to continue building more units soon after to keep up with the university’s growth. There has also been an increase in demand from juniors and seniors for additional on-campus options, he said.
“For the first time, two years ago we started seeing juniors and seniors who were feeling like they couldn’t find a place they could afford or find a place at all,” Marshall said. “We started to see some additional pressure with upperclassmen … We’ve almost never had juniors and seniors living on campus, and we still only have a few, because we just don’t have room for them. It would be nice if we could get to a place where we could handle freshmen and sophomores, and if some modest population of juniors and seniors wanted to stay here, that would be nice. That probably means we’re still a few hundred beds behind.”
Marshall said CMU is monitoring its housing situation to determine if and when it will need to construct more housing after the Centennial Village is completed. However, he said the project would add needed capacity.
SOUTHWEST PART OF CAMPUS
The Centennial Village project is part of a larger plan for the southwest corner of campus, which Marshall said is called the Formation District. That also includes a food hall that is planned to be constructed this year.
“If you think of that whole southwest corner of campus — the Formation District as we’re calling it — the hotel and the theater are kind of anchoring that space,” Marshall said. “Now the task is filling in with residential, commercial, academic and retail. And so these two facilities will really help kickstart that.”
The food hall, which will be across the parking lot from the Centennial Village, will have space for commercial businesses Marshall said.
“This will be a different kind of project for us,” Marshall said. “Obviously we’ve done retail dining and we’ve also done cafeteria dining. This will be kind of a blend.”
There will be food options and retail space, Marshall said and will serve the student population, but also welcome in the wider community.
“I think each of these pieces in their own right are things we hope will continue the long tradition of Mesa as not an institution behind four walls that the community can’t touch, but something that is very much integrated in the fabric of this valley and this region,” Marshall said.
The recently completed Asteria Theater is a prime example of that, Marshall said. With that performing arts center completed, the university is also moving forward this year with renovations to the Moss Performing Arts Center.
“We’re putting about another $15 million into that space,” Marshall said. “(We’re) renovating, modernizing more and better academic space for the arts, classrooms, practice rooms, rehearsal rooms and faculty offices.”
Just to the west of the Moss Performing Arts Center, between Wubben Hall and Tomlinson Library, CMU will also construct a new art walk and outdoor geology lab, Marshall said.
HISTORIC HOUSE
The university is also renovating a historic house along Seventh Street that will play a part in the university’s 100th anniversary celebration, which began April 10. That historic home, which is being called the 1925 House, will serve as a gathering place for university and community events.
“There’s really only one house like that, and it’s been renovated to be a period kind of a design,” Marshall said. “So it feels a little bit like that 1920s from when we were started. It’ll help us tell our story. It’ll be a space where we could host people and where the community can gather.”
That renovation should be completed around the start of the fall semester, Marshal said. The university is also continuing to expand its geothermal system with the help of state grant funding.
“You’ll see a bunch more drilling commencing late fall as soon as the rugby season is over because we’re going to need to drill the majority of that existing rugby pitch,” Marshall said. “We’ve got some pieces of it already drilled, but we need to expand our capacity and connect it to the central loop there.”
While the amount of construction is significant, Marshall said the university’s focus this coming year is celebrating its 100 years of serving students in western Colorado and the principles it stands for.
“The projects matter and, yes, the dollars are big, but, the 100-year celebration really for us is an opportunity to remind ourselves where we came from, why we do what we do and trying to stay true to those first principles,” Marshall said.
