Posted on Sep 1, 2003

Enhancing community

When the College decided to purchase and renovate the nearby Ramada Inn, the
decision to do so was, to me, an obvious one.

The acquisition will help us meet several longstanding goals of the College. Among these goals:

It will provide appropriate social space for students; for example, the Jason Mraz concert I recently attended in Memorial Chapel would fit far more appropriately into the inn's ballroom;

It will give us much-needed athletic space with the addition of a turf field for lacrosse and soccer;

It will continue our efforts to make Union's environs safer for our students by cleaning up an unsightly and dark area;

It will be at worst revenue neutral and at best generate positive cash flow, with student room and board fees and conferencing possibilities paying for the project;

It will add another facet to our House System.

The last point is of special interest. Over the past few years, we have taken several long looks at ourselves, including a comprehensive self-study we did to prepare for our reaccredidation in 2000. A recurring theme among students has been their desire for more opportunities to get to know their teachers outside of the classroom and the laboratory. To address this desire is one of the chief goals of our new House System, and it is the principal reason we often talk of the House System as our most important academic initiative.

Union has always been a residential liberal arts college. “Residential” is key. Like our counterparts, we are convinced that the 24/7 nature of a college campus like ours enhances a sense of community. In turn, that fact contributes to our students' education, for learning can-and should-come in many ways outside of the classroom, from offbeat film series to late-night debates in dorm rooms to inviting faculty members over for coffee or dinner. Yet for many years we have not been able to provide this kind of atmosphere for all of our students. A shortage of on-campus housing has meant that up to twenty-five percent of our students live
in off-campus apartments and, as a result, the sense of community has been compromised.

When the opportunity arose to purchase the former Ramada Inn, we at first thought about continuing to keep
it open as a hotel, since the hotel was a profitable operation. However, the more the Board of Trustees examined the issue, the clearer it became that converting the hotel into a residence hall would better meet the long-term goals of the College and develop further our positive presence in the neighborhoods adjacent to campus.

When renovations are complete, including the creation of the athletic fields adjacent to the building, we will have added a wonderful new residence hall for 230 students-and brought the percentage of students who live on campus to more than 90 percent (about 200 students will continue to live in off-campus housing). In the process, we will have a facility with study areas, a fitness area, conference facilities, and a deli/coffee bar, and we will arrange housing to meld with the House System, perhaps by having floors tied to houses.

If we had such a need for new student housing, why did we not build on campus? Because I think it is vital that we maintain the integrity of our historic campus-the first planned campus in America. Indeed, our recent lawsuit against the city (successfully concluded in 2001) was necessitated by the fact that, other than the historic campus, we had no space on which to build.

I have no doubt that students will embrace the new residence hall. Since our College Park neighborhood added apartment-style housing for about 200 students, there has been an increasing demand for on-campus housing by all students, including juniors and seniors. And, with private baths in each room, the “inn” will be in high demand.

We recognize that some students and parents will have concerns with the perceived distance from campus, security, and the hotel-like image of the building (although the Ramada is closer to the Nott Memorial than several of the student residence halls located on Lenox Road). To address these issues, a lighted walkway will be built, and there will be regular transportation provided from the main campus to the new residence hall by trolley; there will be a security presence at the new building twenty-four hours a day; and we are confident that our architects will create an attractive and enticing design in keeping with the College's splendid architecture.

It's an exciting time at Union and, if you have not visited the campus in a while, I urge you to come back. There is
no question that the physical campus determines, to a great degree, the kind of life that is lived on it. As we plan these changes, we do so believing fervently that the lives of our students will be enhanced.

Roger H. Hull