FLAGSTAFF — The UA is moving forward with plans to build two new dorms on the site of parking lots along East Sixth Street, with nearly 1,000 beds to ease an on-campus housing crunch.
The plan also calls for replacing the 60-year-old Hopi Residence Hall, for a total net increase of 1,063 beds.
The projects, which total an expected $185 million, were added to the University of Arizona's capital development plan Thursday by the Arizona Board of Regents.
Currently, the UA houses about 6,000 students in 20 on-campus dorms, plus one leased off-campus apartment complex. About 75 percent of the residents are freshmen, and about 75 percent of freshmen live on campus.
The larger of the two new dorms would house 655 students at the northeast corner of Sixth and North Euclid Avenue, south of Coronado Residence Hall. The smaller one would have 339 beds at the northeast corner of Sixth and North Highland Avenue, across from the Student Recreation Center.
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The Hopi replacement project would create 187 new beds, and while a final location hasn't been determined, it could be built on the Hopi site, at Highland and East Fourth Street, said Jim Van Arsdel, director of residence life.
On-campus housing is at capacity, with about 300 students turned away in each of the last three years. The new dorms will allow the UA to stop leasing off-campus apartments for students, as well as complete a yearlong replacement of the plumbing system in Coronado.
Van Arsdel said design and planning for the new dorms will begin soon and take about a year, with construction slated for about two years. The project will complete the last residence halls in the 2003 campus development plan.
The last dorms built are Posada San Pedro, Pueblo de la Cienega and Villa del Puente, which were finished in 2004 and 2003 along Highland.
The regents approved three other additions to the capital development plan: a $3.2 million renovation for the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research in the west stadium, a $3 million hazardous-waste facility enclosure near University Medical Center, and a $4 million veterinary sciences building at the West Campus Agricultural Center, near Interstate 10 and Miracle Mile.
The regents also approved a $5.6 million budget increase for the Student Recreation Center expansion. Joel D.Valdez, senior vice president for business affairs, said the project scope was reduced during the design phase based on borrowing rates and what an already approved student fee could generate.
Better rates allow the plan to reinstate a multipurpose activity court and a free-standing boulder-climbing feature, said Juliette Moore, director of campus recreation.
The regents also approved a five-year contract extension for Arizona State University President Michael Crow, with a pay and benefits package rising to $720,000.
The private ASU Foundation is contributing $75,000 to $100,000 each year, as well as a $600,000 bonus if Crow remains at ASU through the end of the contract, June 30, 2012.
"I have never seen the advancement of any university as it has under his presidency," said Regent Dennis DeConcini. "He is a dynamic leader, nationally recognized."
When Crow started at Arizona State in 2002, the regents raised then-UA President Peter Likins' salary by 46 percent to keep it in line with Crow's deal.
Robert Shelton, Likins' successor, was hired last July 1 with a three-year contract offering annual compensation of $550,000.
