UNIVERSITY TURNS APARTMENT BUILDINGS INTO HOUSING

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Southeast Missouri State University plans to turn two Cape Girardeau apartment buildings into housing for students.

Tom Lovett, dean of students, said this will mark the first such housing arrangement here for university students.

The buildings are being renovated by university physical plant crews as the individual apartments become vacant, said Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast.

The brick buildings, located at 401 and 505 Washington, were purchased from Jeffrey Investors, a company based in the St. Louis area, at a cost of $150,000, Wallhausen said.

The buildings were purchased through the University Foundation in late December.

"This will begin to fill a gap in the housing offerings that we have for our students," said Wallhausen.

The buildings consist of 15 two-bedroom and four one-bedroom units.

The apartment buildings are located only a few blocks from campus and within a couple blocks of a campus parking lot, which could be served by Southeast's shuttle bus system, said Lovett.

He said plans call for utilizing the buildings for non-traditional, married and graduate students.

"The renovation is being done right now," said Lovett.

"We're not changing walls or anything like that, mainly it is general updating and modernizing, and some repairs that were needed," he explained.

"I know the physical plant (crew) is looking at replacing some of the bathroom fixtures with more modern fixtures," said Lovett.

In addition, some apartments need new carpet and doors, and walls need to be repainted.

Lovett said the first renovated units should be ready for students within a week or two. All of the renovation work should be completed before the start of the fall semester, he added.

The one-bedroom units will likely rent for $205 a month and two-bedroom units for $260 a month. The rental price includes all utilities, except electricity, said Lovett.

These apartments, he said, will provide needed housing for non-traditional, married and graduate students.

"They are not really intended to be run as residence halls," pointed out Lovett.

"A residence hall is what is usually thought of as a living, learning environment," he noted. "These apartments are really housing as opposed to a residence hall."

No meals will be provided for the apartment residents, but the university will take care of the upkeep of the buildings.

Lovett said the apartment buildings will replace the more limited apartment-style housing now offered in the K Building of Greek Housing.

A new fraternity will be moving into the building this fall, noted Lovett.

"Obviously the space we had in K building was a chance to try to see if there was a demand (for such housing)," he explained.

But, he said, the building's rooms were small and not suited for families. The apartment buildings will be better suited for families, he noted.

"Non-traditional and graduate students will have first priority and we will see what the demand is like," said Lovett, noting that this could ultimately lead to more apartment housing for students in the future.

With these apartment buildings, Southeast will have 19 units available for students, which is considerably less than the number of such apartments offered by Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Arkansas State University and Murray State.

"SIU-Carbondale has 576 units like we are talking about. These (19) would be our first," said Lovett. "It shows that there is probably a demand out there that hasn't been met."

SIU's 576 units are housed in 55 apartment buildings. "They operate at a 100 percent occupancy with a waiting list," said Lovett.

At Arkansas State, they have 50 two-bedroom houses and 153 mobile homes for students.

There is a one- to two-year wait for students to get into the houses, he noted.

Murray State has 12 two-bedroom apartments and 132 one-bedroom apartments for students.

There is a long waiting list to get into such housing there. Students at Murray State can wait up to a year and a half to get into such housing, Lovett noted.

The dean of students said there is an increasing need for such housing at Southeast as more and more non-traditional students are attending college.

In the mid-1970s, most of the student body was under 21 years of age, said Lovett.

"Now we have at least 26 percent that would be considered non-traditional students either 25 or older, or they have families, or they have been married, widowed, divorced or whatever, but in some way they don't fit that traditional student model."

Said Lovett, "I'm just excited about having this option for students."