Big changes on the way for student housing at Fort Hays State

By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

Residential life at Fort Hays State University is about to see big changes as this weekend ground-breaking will begin on the first of many projects aimed at improving on-campus housing at the university.

The first project will kick off with a ground-breaking ceremony for the Dane G.Hansen Scholarship Hall at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The 31-bed facility is expected to be ready for students in the fall of 2016 and seeks to serve enterprising students in an inclusive environment to foster entrepreneurship.

The hall is a small piece of the overall upgrades to FHSU’s student housing. The university is also planning to replace Weist Hall and build themed housing on campus – all within the next two years.

“It’s themed housing, and themed is the important word, because it’s not just Greek row,” said Joey Linn, vice president of the Division of Student Affairs.

“By naming this a themed housing plan, we have flexibility in what we want to do,” Linn said.

Right now this area serves as extra parking, but within the next two years themed housing will be the dominate feature of the area. — Right now, this area serves as extra parking, but within the next two years themed housing will be the dominant feature of the area.

Although the building will be open to other groups, fraternities and sororities will be the first to take advantage of the housing, with two sororities and one fraternity having already signed housing agreements.

The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority were the first two groups to sign on.

“Neither of those groups had a current house off campus. I think it was a pretty easy decision for them,” said Jacob Ternes, coordinator of Student Involvement and Greek Life.

The Delta Zeta sorority has also signed on, moving from their current off-campus house.

“We’re excited about the opportunities it’s going to give our students,” said Becky Peterson, director of Residential Life.

With three of the four units already occupied, another building nearby can be easily added.

“We have an opportunity with building one,” Linn said. “We could put another building up there,” in the footprint of the area if more are needed.

“That’s not just the Greek need, but if there is additional needs we see on campus for special groups,” Linn said.

The building will have four units, with 21 beds per unit.

The housing will not only increase housing at FHSU, but might also help make fraternity and sorority life more appealing to students.

“It’s going to relive some of that housing burden from the advisers,” Ternes said, allowing the advisers to focus less on housing issues on more on Greek life.

“I think we’re going to see our students get more connected,” Peterson said.

The last decade hit local fraternities and sororities hard, but FHSU hopes the housing will help kick off a revival of a traditional part of campus life.

“The 2005 to 2008 years were a pretty low spot for our community here,” Ternes said. “But since then, our sororities have been growing exponentially.”

FHSU currently has three sororities and four fraternities, but more are coming back to FHSU.

“This spring, we’re adding Alpha Kappa Lamda fraternity,” Ternes said. “In 2017, we’ve got an agreement with Alpha Sigma Alpha to come back.”

“After 2017, we’ll have nine,” he said.

One of the newer housing developments at FHSU, Stadium Place will soon have a new neighbor – Themed Housing. — One of the newer housing developments at FHSU, Stadium Place, will soon have a new neighbor – Themed Housing.

“I think there’s is demand for it on this campus. We’re currently about 5 percent of the on-campus student population,” he added. “If you look at Emporia or Pittsburg State, we could grow that to 10 percent of the on-campus population and be comparable.”

While students in the housing will likely benefit from the university oversight, questions still remain as to exactly how policies will be implemented, but in general,FHSU housing rules will apply to member of fraternities and sororities that live in themed housing.

“We’re still in conversations figuring out what the policy will be like, but our expectation is that the baseline will be residential life policies,” Ternes said. “It’s kind of a blended model between self policing and residential life oversight. Our goal is to train one of the members living in there as a resident assistant.”

Another large piece of the picture is the replacement of Weist Hall, which is happening in conjunction with the building of the themed housing.

While “it’s still in the construction document stage,” Barnett said, a spring or late spring ground-breaking is expected.

Both are expected to be ready for move in fall 2017.

“The new building will be in front of Weist, where it exists right now,” he said.

Building in front of the current building will allow it to be occupied during construction, with demolition planed after the new building is occupied.

Following the demolition of Weist, McMindes Hall will be the oldest residence hall on the FHSU campus.

Funding for the project will mostly come from bonds, but residential life and and university funds will also contribute to the $34 million budget including parking and the two buildings.

The replacement for Weist Hall will have 405 beds and with themed housing the university is looking at a gain in available housing overall.

“Once we get these projects competed, I think our student residential life facilities are from top to bottom are going to be first class,” Linn said. “I would put our facilities up against anyone in the Midwest.”