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Holy Cross plans first new residence hall in 35 years
By Paul E. Kandarian
 Seniority has its privileges.
And for Holy Cross students entering their fourth year in
September 2003, that privilege will include first-of-its-kind
on-campus residential living.
In the works is a 244-bed, five-story apartment complex
that is unlike any housing options now available at Holy
Cross. And while Alumni, Carlin and Loyola Halls have seen
major renovation projects over the past decade or so, this
will be the first full-fledged residential construction at
the College since 1966 when Mulledy Hall was built.
The $18-million project, which passed city permitting in
March, broke ground in early May. Its primary purpose is
to bring Holy Cross upperclass students back into the College’s
residential fold, officials say. Currently, about 500 of
the school’s 2,800 undergraduates live off campus every
year, and the administration wants to lower that figure.
According to Holy Cross President, Michael C. McFarland,
S.J., it is essential to bring off-campus students back on
campus, a realization that stemmed from a retreat two years
ago.
“It was one of the priorities that came out of a retreat
we held in June 2000,” Fr. McFarland says, “and
is important for two reasons. One, our residence hall system,
although well maintained and solid, doesn’t provide
the kind of facilities students today are looking for, particularly
upperclassmen. To remain competitive, we need that kind of
facility.
“Secondly, we want to draw more off-campus students
back on campus,” he says, adding that the way to do
that is to offer apartment-style living as opposed to dormitory
dwellings.
The 85,000-square-foot facility to be built on the lower
part of the College Hill Campus between Loyola and Alumni
Halls will boast 244 beds in 61 two-bedroom apartments, with
each bedroom having two beds.
The brick-faced building will house apartments that will
each have a living room, full kitchen with stove, dishwasher
and garbage disposal, plus a breakfast bar, a bathroom with
two sinks and a dining/study area.
The two-wing building will feature floor-to-ceiling windows
in the front and back of the main entrance area, giving the
building an airy, modern aura, says Jacqueline Dansler Peterson,
vice president for student affairs and dean of students.
And, she notes, the center of the building will also feature
a main-floor multifunction room and stone terraces in front
and back.
Creating apartment-style living is essential to keeping
students on campus, according to Peterson. A Residential
Life Planning Committee-commissioned study by Dober, Lidsky,
Craig and Associates Inc., compared Holy Cross to 16 peer
colleges—11 of them had residential rates of 90-100
percent, while Holy Cross lagged far behind at 76 percent.
“When we looked at the things that contributed to the
flight off campus in the late ’80s and early ’90s,
we found that a limited variety of residential living spaces,
as compared to our competitors, was significant,” Peterson
says. “A student could pretty much come to Holy Cross
as a first-year student and spend four years living in the
same type of building—dorm-style facilities, with long
corridors.
“We felt it very important to offer students more variety,
especially students approaching their third and fourth years
who are looking for more independent-style living—where
they can cook for themselves—as opposed to having 100
people living along a corridor,” she says.
Noting that “it’s nice to have them on campus,” Peterson
adds that in no way is Holy Cross looking to boost enrollment
by building the apartment complex.
“It was never the objective to increase enrollment,” she
says. “The size we are works well for the mission of
the College.”
Holy Cross looked at a few areas on campus to build the
apartment complex, according to Peterson, and decided on
the McKeon Road area for several reasons.
“The site we chose was ideal because it’s adjacent
to upper-class residences and gives the opportunity to create
an upper-class student community,” she explains. “The
building will be a hub for activity programming for upper-class
students.”
Other possible sites near the top of College Hill, beyond
Mulledy Hall, were considered too remote and isolated from
the main campus, and posed additional challenges such as
the presence of ledge.
Students now seek off-campus living within a 10-mile radius
of the school, she says, noting that, on both ends of College
Hill, are two popular apartment complexes, Cambridge Apartments
and Autumn Chase Apartments. The College itself owns several
pieces of property on nearby Caro Street, which it rents
to students.
If the new housing goes over well—and officials expect
it will—there is room in the area for future expansion,
Peterson says.
In the meantime, she explains, the College will work with
current vacancies in existing residence halls—about
109 this school year—and convert at least some to single
units. Peterson observes that these “have not been an
option on this campus”—a contention supported by
the commissioned study that said Holy Cross has under 5 single
units (0-percent) compared to 34-percent single units in
the peer study group.
“If we can convert some of these to singles, we hope
to interest at least that group of students seeking private
rooms off campus to stay on campus and be in line for the
new apartments next year,” she says.
Getting students to commit early to on-campus housing is
essential, Peterson explains.
“One thing we found in the study is that students start
to make their plans to live off campus fairly early—some
as early as their first year,” she says. “By the
second year, they’re putting deposits on places to move
into their third year. We really need to tap them early and
get them interested in staying on campus.”
For at least the first year of the new apartment building,
residence will be restricted to fourth-year students. “After
that,” Peterson says, “we’ll see how it goes.”
In addition to the apartment building, the project will
include construction of a parking garage near the facility,
she says, with up to five floors that will provide approximately
432 parking spaces. Slated for construction on the existing
Carlin parking lot site, the new garage will create 300 new
spaces on campus.
Holy Cross is financing the project upfront with a tax-exempt
bond issue, says William R. Durgin, the College’s vice
president for business affairs and treasurer—with the
hope that the College will generate enthusiastic support
from its ongoing capital campaign drive to raise money to
support the facility and keep costs at affordable levels.
In the meantime, the undercurrent of excitement at the College
about the new apartment building gives the College an advantage
in lining up students to live there, Peterson says.
“Some students (entering their fourth year this fall)
are lamenting, ‘great, this happens just when I’m
leaving,’ while others are counting the time until 2003,
when they can live there,” she says. “It’s
important to have that kind of excitement.”
Holy Cross Receives ‘AA-' Bond Rating
Fitch Investor Services, L.P. awarded Holy Cross an ‘AA-' rating
for its recent Revenue Bond, the proceeds of which will be
used for construction of the new residence hall and parking
garage. In its evaluation Fitch stated, "The ‘AA-' rating
and stable outlook reflect College of the Holy Cross' steady
enrollment, positive operating performance, substantial liquidity,
minimal deferred maintenance, and experienced professional
management."
This AA- rating places the College in good company with
its peer schools and translates directly into cost savings,
in terms of bond insurance costs and lower interest rates.
Paul E. Kandarian is a free-lance journalist from Taunton,
Mass.
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