CAMPUS NEWS
For those students who will be residing in the dorms, a significant addition to the campus life experience will be the tranquil chapel on the second floor and the combination of private spaces adjacent to community “play” areas. “Today’s discerning student wants both the amenity of private space but also does not want to be alone throughout the freshman year,” says Lamadrid. “The student wants company, friendship, community, but privacy as well. This design offers both. The halls are also completely wireless so that students can access the Internet and email with their laptops or tablet. This is how students communicate nowadays. The wireless halls will facilitate that communication.” The benefit to the Abbey community as a whole is also not overlooked. Keeping the family together, so to speak, by keeping students on one campus is one of the major goals of the project. “We have housed between 100 to 120 upperclass students in sublet apartments for three years, having surpassed our residential capacity each fall semester. The construction of the new residence halls will allow us to reduce the numbers of upperclassmen living off campus and will restore the connection between those upperclassmen and the campus community.”
Winter 2013
CROSSROADS
The Magazine of Belmont Abbey College
55