As the university begins planning to build a new 1,000-bed apartment complex on the current site of Lot T, University Housing emailed a survey request to University Village residents to gauge what students want out of new housing on campus.
The survey, which was sent to UV residents Feb. 18, asked students for their preference between three potential floor plans: a two bedroom studio-style apartment, a traditional two-bedroom apartment, and a three-bedroom apartment. All of the floor plans feature the privacy-focused single bedrooms found in the rest of on-campus housing. Computer science freshman Ricky Lu said that he likes the traditional two-bedroom floor plan.
“[I like the] two by two [floorplan]. Just because you get your own bathroom, but you still get a roommate to socialize [with],” Lu said, noting that the floorplan also avoids potential privacy issues. “I know [UV has] a floorplan where the bathrooms connect, so you’re never actually private, because technically your roommate can just come in [to your room].”
The apartments are planned to be a cheaper alternative to off-campus housing options like Northside, complete with planned retail locations on the first floor. Computer science junior David Wu, currently living at Northside, said that having mixed-use housing on campus can help all students, not just the residents of the new complex.
“I love [mixed-use housing], you know, back when I was a freshman, I had to walk a while just to get to somewhere else [to eat],” Wu said. “The [main] option we have is the cafeteria. There [aren’t many] other options, [just] Papa John’s and that. So it would be nice to have a 7/11 down the [street].”
Despite the benefits that developing new mixed-use housing may bring, some Comets are against the construction. Computer science master’s student Pritul Dave said he is worried that the new housing might result in fewer parking spaces on campus.
“I would say [that the] majority of people over here are commuters,” Dave said. “So if we are reducing the parking [spaces] then that will be difficult for them because they will not have slots to park the cars. So I will say since we have more commuters [at UTD] … it’s a bad idea to build the houses and remove the parking lots.”
Even though the new complex may result in reduced parking spots for commuters, it will result in increased on-campus housing, something that, according to the University Housing website, has completely run out. Lu said it is important to build more on-campus housing despite the potential problems.
“I do feel like they need more housing because I know [that] this year … there were 2,000 people applying for 1,200 rooms, so that’s like 800 people who couldn’t get anything,” Lu said. “So I mean, if it’s 1,000 new rooms, I don’t see an issue with that … [other than] parking [becoming] an even bigger problem.”
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