More student housing will trigger thriving campus community

We’re gearing up to develop more student housing on campus.

Next door to our current 376-bed University Village, we plan to begin construction this spring on a 369-student facility—all private bedroom apartment suites, including 12 two-bedroom units. Occupancy is expected in fall 2009.

The provision of housing for nearly 750 students will nurture an exciting dynamic on our campus. As I told The (NW Indiana) Times for a story in its Dec. 16 editions, additional student housing “will enable Purdue Calumet to take a major step forward in its maturation as a thriving campus community.”

By that I mean that with more students living on our campus 24/7, we must and will continue to make our campus comfortable and inviting through increased services, programs, activities and facility access. Doing so benefits not just our residents, but ALL our students.

Since The University Village opened in 2005, we have seen the seeds of a thriving campus community begin to grow. We have seen more activity in our Fitness & Recreation Center. Our intramural program has increased in the number of programs and participants. We also have expanded the hours of campus facilities in greatest demand by our students.  

A thriving, 21st century campus community generates social, academic and cultural energy. Increased student housing will mean growing opportunities for students of similar academic disciplines to band together in learning communities. So will the opportunity for our local, domestic students to engage in greater cultural awareness and understanding through interaction with the growing population of international students—387 this fall—who attend Purdue Calumet.

The bricks and mortar of enabling more students to reside on campus is a means to an end of enabling Purdue Calumet to become the rich, robust campus it is poised to become.

Sincerely,

Howard Cohen
Chancellor