When one looks around the University of Massachusetts Boston’s campus, they can immediately see giant dirt mounds and all the construction that is taking place. This ongoing construction is part of the university’s 25-year plan. If you are unfamiliar, the plan includes building new academic buildings and renovating the old ones. The Integrated Science Complex and the new University Hall buildings are both a part of this plan.
As many of us have heard, UMass Boston is planning on building residence halls for students. For the longest while, we have been hearing about the university’s plan to build residence halls. It seems as if this plan is finally coming to fruition. The new residence halls are estimated to have cost about $120 million and will include 1,000 beds in 260,000 square feet of living space.
The residence halls will be at the corner of Mt. Vernon Street and the new University Drive West, near the Clark Athletic Center. It is expected to offer a range of styles from single occupancy apartments to four-person units. It will also feature flexible living and learning spaces and dining halls which will be available to the entire UMass Boston community. The dorms themselves will be made available for first year students. The university will be building additional residence halls for other students sometime in the future.
As plans about residence halls are given the greenlight, UMass Boston is now in the process of selecting a vendor for the new residence hall furniture. On Tuesday Feb. 21, three vendors set up and pitched their company’s products in hope of being selected to supply UMass Boston with residence hall furniture.
The three companies included Appalachian University Systems, or The AUS Way. The AUS Way has been providing colleges and universities with residence hall furniture since 1992. They have manufacturing operations in countries such as Asia, Mexico, and the United States. On their website, they stated, “We take great pride in the service that we offer our clients and will never lose focus on building quality products, making on time deliveries, and successfully completed installations.”
The second vendor was Foliot Furniture. Foliot is a company from Montreal, Canada, and has another factory in Las Vegas. Foliot Furniture has been in business for 25 years. They too, also focus on supplying colleges and universities with furniture for residence halls which accounts for about 70 percent of the furniture they make. Having only two factories in North America, Foliot Furniture boasts that they are the largest in the region. Their furniture is made in Montreal.
Foliot promises consistency in products; they stated that they use the same dimensions and rarely ever change their measurements. All parts of their products are replaceable and are made the same. Foliot’s spokesperson claimed that his company can replace parts that were made even 25 years ago without having any issues. They also stated that their furniture is made to meet the needs of the university while remaining on budget and also meeting the needs of students.
The third and last company was South West Contract (SWC). SWC is a family-owned furniture supplier from Texas. SWC noted that they are the largest on-campus supplier in the country with a specialty only in making furniture for residence halls; they have a large catalog of the work they have done. They supply residence hall furniture because that is what they are comfortable with and because they like dealing with students and universities.
The furniture from these vendors was on display at the Point Lounge, which is located on the third floor of the campus center. It was put on display for all to see. Students could share their opinions by voting for the company whose furniture they liked most.
From each company’s presentation, it was clear that they were all trying their best to meet the needs of the university as best as they can. Each company is hoping that there are selected to supply UMass Boston residence halls with furniture and each has expressed their willingness to be adaptable regarding whatever needs the university has.
With the introduction of residence halls, there is no doubt that these halls will have an impact on the university. These dorms will potentially attract and deter students to and from UMass Boston. While some administrators and students are pleased that UMass Boston will now offer student housing, not everyone shares this enthusiasm. Some students are worried that it will change the universities dynamics and the whole idea of UMass Boston being a commuter school.
When asked what she thinks of UMass Boston’s decision to build residence halls, Emily Martin-Lockard said, “I personally came to UMass Boston because I wanted the option to commute from home.” She also noted that even though she had chosen UMass Boston because she wanted to commute, she understood how these residence halls would be beneficial to students and admits the growing demands for affordable housing options in Boston. She expressed that students will be able to use financial aid money and money from scholarships to help offset the cost of housing.