Although Central Campus will no longer house undergraduates next year, graduate and professional students will have the option of living in 301 Swift Avenue apartments.
Joe Gonzalez, assistant vice president of student affairs and dean for residential life, said that the apartments will house 20 to 25 graduate and professional students. The sections of 301 Swift not used for housing will be converted into administrative buildings, he added.
“With the opening of The Hollows we have enough beds for undergrads and need a few spaces for grad/prof students,” wrote Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, in an email to The Chronicle.
The apartments at 301 Swift currently contain the undergraduate fraternity sections for Sigma Nu and Kappa Alpha Order. Gonzalez said that the buildings at 301 Swift “still had use in them,” as he described them as nicer than the facilities on the rest of Central Campus.
Gonzalez explained that most of the students living in 301 Swift will be new graduate students, especially those coming from outside of the United States.
“[These students] historically have had a harder challenge in terms of finding housing, given their distance,” he said.
The change from undergraduate to graduate housing will return the buildings to their original use. Central Campus was constructed in the 1970s to house graduate and professional students and transitioned in the following decades to house undergraduates instead.
Next year, as graduate students move back into 301 Swift, most undergraduates will be housed on West Campus—with the exception of those upperclassmen living off campus or in 300 Swift, or first-years living on East Campus.
As for 301 Swift's former occupants, Kappa Alpha Order's section will be located in Craven on West Campus, whereas Sigma Nu's section will move across the street to 300 Swift.
The Board of Trustees has created The Future of Central Campus Task Force that is charged with proposing a plan for the future uses of the land, which may include building, selling or being left vacant.
In the meantime, the new arrangements at 301 Swift are here to stay.
“We do expect to use this for graduate and professional housing for a good while,” Gonzalez said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Matthew Griffin was editor-in-chief of The Chronicle's 116th volume.