The south side of Glimmerglass lagoon continues its transformation into a new residential area as construction on The Village inches closer to completion.
Constructed to accommodate 350 students, The Village brings new features that will give students a taste of "real-world living," along with a green, environmentally-friendly atmosphere. The 12 houses will be home to either groups of four or six, and will be united with a community center for students to socialize and participate in recreational activities, Interim Director of Residence Life and Housing Rick Kolenda said.
Each townhouse has single bedrooms for every resident, and each bedroom contains a full-size bed – an upgrade from the extra-long twins that students have in the other residence halls on campus. This asset is unique to Oswego State as well. Townhouse complexes at SUNY Brockport house extra-long twin beds in all of their residence halls, Townhouse Coordinator Carrie Welch said.
Oswego State students are looking forward to the extra room to lounge in bed.
"I love it and think it’s absolutely amazing," said sophomore Christyne Chmil, 19. I have a big bed at home and I like to roll around so it’s definitely a good thing. I feel like having a full-size makes it an actual room, rather than a dorm room."
Bedroom sizes are also bigger than a traditional room in residence halls. A standard double room is 185 square feet, and the single rooms in The Village range from 116 to 136 square feet.
"This essentially means that the single rooms in The Village are going to be bigger than half of a standard double room," Kolenda said.
Students starting in the 2006-2007 year will pay $3,745, and each later year sees a slight increase. The Oswego Guarantee will be valid for Villagers, meaning they will pay whatever they have paid since their first year on campus.
Oswego State students also get special amenities such as free laundry, wireless Internet, basic cable, air conditioning, a fully-furnished kitchen and a vacuum, Kolenda said. Kitchen appliances include a microwave, dishwasher, full-size stove and at least one full-size refrigerator. Students will be responsible for providing their own cooking equipment, such as pots and pans.
Residents won’t have to worry about sharing a bathroom and not having enough time to get ready in the morning either, Kolenda said. Each townhouse is equipped with two full bathrooms that are separated into three segments to utilize privacy and efficiency.
The Village task force team is still working to figure out supervision and the exact times that students will be allowed to stay in the complex during breaks from classes. SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Brockport both allow students to stay in their townhouses throughout the academic year.
Priority of students to get into the townhouses is based on a similar system that is used for selection into Onondaga Hall, said Marie Shuman of Residence Life and Housing. Adirondack Solutions software is used to generate a lottery number for every student applying to live in the townhouses. The lottery number is based on class standing, but is selected randomly by the program. After each student in a group receives their number, they are averaged together and that will be the groups’ lottery number. Students will then go in order of their group lottery number and select a townhouse from what’s available.
"It sounds like a complicated process, but it’s the simplest and most fair way to break it down and give students the opportunity to get the housing they want," Shuman said.
