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Miami plans to overhaul residence halls

Early plan would span 45 projects during 20 years.

By Oriana Pawlyk, Contributing Writer Updated 11:20 PM Sunday, February 7, 2010

OXFORD — Miami University has begun work on a master plan to renovate campus housing.

University officials started discussing the longterm project that — in an early and aggressive plan — would span 45 projects during 20 years.

The project would touch every corner of campus, improving residence halls that are an average age of 61 years, according to the university.

A recent study reports 80 percent of students care about their campus housing experience and housing is an important aspect when making the choice to come to Miami.

Miami hired two architecture firms to assess 14 dorms on campus, rating them on a scale of 1 to 5 on how much work is needed, with a rating of 5 meaning it needs the most work.

Swing Hall, which was built in 1924 at Tallawanda and East Church streets, was rated as a 3.

Miami lags behind the national average of space per bed at 170 square feet per bed at 70 percent of Miami’s housing. The national average is 180 to 240 square feet, according to university architect Robert Keller.

“My roommate and I chose to live in Swing Hall for our sophomore year because of its location to campus and to Uptown,” said Swing Hall resident Owen Cook. “However, the size of our room is inconveniently smaller than other rooms in the building.”

Miami’s early plans call to renovate most halls and build one new one.

Keller said he would have recommendations for moving forward with the project at the next meeting of the Board of Trustees subcommittee on finance meeting in April.

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Way to save money again there Miami! You really need to knock these dorms down and rebuild them from the ground up. But NO, "it'd ruin the look of the campus", and we all know that how things look is much more important than functionality. Spend the money Miami, and make things right for once. Do it for the students and build new dorms. The students are the reason Miami exists! Without students, what would Miami be? Ask yourself that question in your committees.

Pinching Pennies
11:27 AM, 2/8/2010

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DD,

The Goggin wasn't entirely private funding. Her is what was printed in the Miami Student on 1/22/10. Every Miami student pays $861.51 general fee per semester. Of this $861.51, $60 facility fees and $77.80 operation fee; when combined, students are paying $137.80 per semester for Goggin. The fee started when Goggin began construction in September 2004. The university believes the debt on The Goggin was 20 years and that would have it expiring about 2024.

FYI

General Fee
11:21 AM, 2/8/2010

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Meant to say "including the basement" rather than "including the library".

DD
9:51 AM, 2/8/2010

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Jim, you're incorrect. Although the physical building hasn't been expanded, the remodeling of King Library in the early 2000s significantly expanded the capabilities of the facility. Every level is now in use - including the library which used to be for group meetings primarily and only had minimal books/periodicals. Not anymore.

As for the hockey rinks, you're wrong there too. The school didn't build those. They came from private funding. If you want to expand the library, donate.

DD
9:50 AM, 2/8/2010

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Mother Miami was built with mom and dad in mind, not for junior: beautiful Georgian exteriors with interiors of painted cinder block and tiny rooms. But where Miami really needs to improve itself is in its libraries: King Library has never been expanded since its construction in the 1970s; the collection of books & periodicals was then and is today substandard for a university that bills itself a "public ivy"--whatever that really means. Meantime it has built 3 hockey rinks. Shameful!

Jim from Dayton
5:54 AM, 2/8/2010

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