More students are enrolling, so this Middle Georgia school is building a new dorm
Middle Georgia State University is set to open a new multimillion-dollar student residence hall on its Macon campus in 2020.
The three-story 73,000 square feet building is set to open July 1, 2020 on the north side of the campus lake beside the Recreation and Wellness Center. It will have 310 beds.
“It will be a nice hub for the students,” Nancy Stroud, the school’s executive vice president for finance and operations, told The Telegraph. “They’ll have a lot of informal spaces like for meetings and study groups … It’s going to be a great building.”
Earlier this month, the Bibb County Development Authority issued a bond of up to $22 million for the building, though it is expected to cost only $18.3 million, school spokeswoman Sheron Smith told The Telegraph.
“The demand for housing on the Macon campus has long exceeded available space,” Smith said, adding that there is a waiting list for open beds each year of about 80 to 100 students.
The new dorm will have double-room suites with two beds in both bedrooms with a shared bathroom.
As of now, students living in University Pointe Apartments are doubling up in single and double rooms and paying a discounted rate because of it.
Freshman enrollment increased by 25 percent, Smith said, and the total student population has increased by 6 percent in fall 2018 compared to fall 2017.
Information Technology, aviation, cyber security, business and health sciences or nursing are the most popular programs at the school, which had a student population of a little less than 8,000 at the start of the 2019 spring semester.
Jennifer Stenander, vice president for enrollment management for the school, attributed the increase to changes in the ways it recruits students.
“We support students from the point of application to graduation,” she said. “We have implemented on-boarding to help the student from getting accepted to the institution to actually enrolling.”
The college also has stepped up its game on social media in addition to sending via text message calls-to-action and words of support to not only freshmen, but also to transfer, dual enrollment and “stop out” students, who are “people who attended Middle Georgia (State University) and left,” Stenander said.
The school also made an effort to introduce students to their advisors earlier, during spring orientations instead of summer orientations.
“It’s important to have that go-to person to ask any question and get answers you need,” Stenander said. “It can be intimidating, whether you’re a brand new freshman or a student coming back to school.”
The new residence hall has not yet been named and it was unclear if there are plans to do so.
