Plans underway to build new student housing at UTEP

Since it first opened in 2001, the demand for living at Miner Village has been high. Charlie Gibbens, director of Residence Life, said the facility has been experiencing 103 percent occupancy for the last few semesters, and that they have had to turn away more than 200 students every year.

To address the need for additional on-campus housing, UTEP's Residence Life is working with the University of Texas' Office of Facilities Planning and Construction to develop new student housing, planned to open in time for the fall 2014 semester.

"Right now, we are at the preliminary stages. We have the architect firm hired. We are in the process of hiring the construction manager. We're at the beginning of the process, which is coming up with a program," Gibbens said."What the architect firm calls the program is what the functionality of the building is; what it's going to look like, what the amenities are inside, where it's located, things like that. We're at the very preliminary stages of that."

Gibbens also said the architect firm is in the process of identifying a location around campus for the new housing. Part of the early process is for them to come up with three or four possible locations that university officials will then sit down and decide upon. Until then, they can not decide what is going to go into the actual building.

"We, right now, have shared information with the firm about what we like and what works really well with the students in regards to Miner Heights and Miner Village," Gibbens said. "Part of their responsibility is to go out and research national trends of what's going on in various student housing operations and what the benefits are to students so that we can make this state-of-the-art housing."

According to Gibbens, one of the things the architect firm is responsible for is coming onto campus and conducting stakeholder meetings where students will have an opportunity to voice what they want in the new facilities.

"I feel the maintenance takes too long to fix things sometimes," said Pedro Covarrubias, junior interdisciplinary studies and education major. "I think that they should get better quiet hours or follow their quiet hours, because sometimes there's too much partying and you can't get your study on. Also check their smoking standards and such because sometimes there's people smoking in there, and sometimes there's pets, peoples' cats and dogs running around."

The goal in construction is not to just recreate Miner Heights or Miner Village in a new location, but to listen to student feedback on what they like and don't like and act accordingly.

"I think living at Miner Village has it's pluses because I don't have to drive home from school and it's convenient to just walk to my classes and walk back to my dorm and during breaks," said Maria Esquinca, sophomore biological sciences major. "But, there are some minuses, like sometimes in my hall people are really loud, like during quiet hours when I'm trying to study and people are being loud or obnoxious. It's annoying."

Esquinca is an El Paso resident who decided to live on campus rather than commute to school. She said she wanted to know the experience of living on her own, and see what it'slike since many UTEP students do not get that kind of experience.

Gibbens said about 50 percent of El Paso area residents populate Miner Village, and that the university has done research that found at-risk students who live on campus are more likely to graduate than at-risk students who live off campus. Part of the reason they're building new housing is to keep students succeeding in school.

"I honestly feel that I did better in my classes because of the convenience of the library," said Brian Tebay, junior criminal justice major and former Miner Village resident who now commutes to school. "Dorm life made use of the library easier and connecting to campus through organizations and such easier."

Gibbens hopes the new housing plans will provide that sort of experience for more students.

"Our whole goal is helping students succeed." Gibbens said. "The old dormitories are kind of likened to freshmen storage facilities, that as soon as the university was done with you for the day, you went there, slept, came back in the morning. It's very interactive here, it's a very positive learning living laboratory, and that's what we're looking to provide with the new housing."

Henry Arrambide may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.