The idea of on-campus living will soon be a reality at BC. The commute to BC can be one that is pricy and frustrating, so for future students it can be fixed simply by living on campus. For international students who do not have immediate family here in Washington, on-campus living would be more convenient. For students in general, on-campus living has the potential to clear up a lot of problems.
Ray White, vice president of Administrative Services, wants it to be known that on-campus living will not be referred to as “dorms” and will be referred to as “student housing.” “Dorms conjure up the images of near prison cells like your parents used to experience,” said White.
Right now, the student housing situation is in the complete beginning stages. White and other BC faculty have gone and toured other colleges to see other housing situations as well as hiring a consultant to help plan the future of student housing, but that’s as far as it goes. Layouts, the matter of figuring out if there will be communal kitchens and shared bathrooms and the like is still in discussion.
BC does have a pretty good idea of where the student housing will be located, which is right near the entrance of the college behind the main parking garage. It’ll start as one unit and eventually expand to meet student needs. Whether the cost of living on-campus will be factored into tuition or will be paid monthly is still up in the air.
Koty Moore, BC student, is all for the idea of housing on campus. “Adding housing to the campus would be an awesome idea. It’ll bring more students to Bellevue College and make it feel more like a four year college.”
Outside of the actual multi-million dollar construction project that will need to take place, BC also has to step into a whole new way of doing things. With on-campus housing, there would be people near and or on campus 24/7. As a result of this, BC will have to figure out how, when, and where to assign campus security, janitorial staff and other employees. Another obstacle that has to be tackled will be figuring out a meal plan for students who are living on-campus.
“Right now, we don’t have people who are trained for 24/7 activity on campus and we need to come up with an infrastructure that supports that,” said White.
As far as requirements for who gets to reside in the on-campus housing, there are none. “We are expecting a mix. The community college model is expected to serve your community and we don’t have the typical student. It’s not a traditional school,” said White.
White is guessing that a large percentage of on-campus residents will be international students as well as BC athletes.
For current students, on-campus housing is probably something that will not be available in the near future. “In a perfect world, where nothing goes wrong, we are aiming to start moving students in in fall quarter of 2016.”