Mesa State New Solar Dorm

Students begin to fill new dorm at Mesa State

By EMILY ANDERSON/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The new Mesa State College residence hall on North and Cannell avenues will open to a full house this school year.
More than 100 people attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday for the $21.3 million, three-building, 93,524-square-foot complex, which will house 304 students. It has a two-story central building with common areas, a four-story building on Cannell Avenue with 24 apartments housing six students each, and a five-story building on North Avenue with retail space on the first floor and 32 suites housing five to six students apiece on the other four floors. A second-story skywalk connects the buildings.
Each building has the same amenities as other residence halls, plus environmentally friendly technology such as solar panels, motion-sensor lights and a connection to a geothermal field that is serving the college’s teaching and business classroom building.
Even with the new rooms, Mesa State is bursting with on-campus residents. The number fluctuates each day, Housing and Residence Life Director Chip Thomas said, but 20 to 25 students could end up staying in hotels this year until rooms become available for them.
Thomas said he hasn’t seen much of a decrease in upperclassmen choosing to live on campus, even though Grand Junction’s apartment vacancy rate increased recently. The trend is likely more about convenience than rent, Thomas said.
“You can park here, you can walk to campus, everything’s here,” Thomas said, adding the residence halls have free laundry, cable and Wi-Fi service.
Fall-semester classes start Monday at Mesa State. Some students have moved into the halls, including more than 100 in the new complex, but most students will move into on-campus housing this weekend.
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