Students’ social lives and wallets differ at First Street Towers
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 08/05/2009
sponsored by
Upperclassmen are moving on up.
First Street Towers, the first new dorm on campus since Hillenbrand opened in 1993, will begin filling with residents on Aug. 15. The dorm is designed in an apartment style as a move-up option for upperclassmen.
Rumors of the dorm’s luxury have circulated throughout campus, but Tom Paczolt, general manager of First Street Towers, said it is no different than any of the other dorms.
“We’re not doing anything different here than what the other halls are doing,” Paczolt said.
Despite these assurances, First Street Towers definitely has a few more luxuries than the average dorm. These include individual bedrooms with private bathrooms, wireless Internet in common areas and free laundry facilities in each cluster of 22 rooms.
“I am going to finally start washing my colors and whites separate so that my socks are no longer gray,” said Mike Dodaro, a senior in the College of Liberal Arts and an R.A. at First Street Towers.
Paczolt said the dorm was able to offer free laundry because of the loss of another less popular luxury – phones in every student’s room.
“The laundry is included in the cost of living here and we were able to do that because we don’t have the phone bills for the student room phones,” he said. “The students can tell us if they want to have their phones activated.”
The luxury of individual rooms and bathrooms may have its prices, though. Socializing is made more difficult when students share fewer common areas. This is one reason First Street Towers is not open to freshmen, who need the socialization offered by a regular dorm.
“The single rooms, that’s going to be huge challenge,” Dodaro said. “If someone is really quiet, you can talk to their roommate but here you have to kind of go out of your way.”
First Street Towers has more to offer than luxuries. The dorm will offer activities aimed at upperclassmen, including opportunities to learn about making banking and housing decisions, looking for a job, writing resumes and practicing for job interviews.
“The programming that we’re doing here is focused on helping students transition through the last years of college,” Paczolt said.
All the added luxuries and opportunities come at a price. First Street Towers is priced at anywhere from $13,824 to $14,832, depending on the meal plan. The price is more than double that of some of the other dorms on campus, which go at a minimum of $6,526 (Cary and Windsor with a 10-meal plan).
“The price, it’s not for everybody,” Paczolt said, “which is why we didn’t build 1,000 rooms like this.”
FAST FACTS:
Luxuries of First Street Towers:
* Free laundry in every cluster
* single bedrooms with private bathrooms
* Wireless Internet in common areas
* Common area in every cluster, with living room, TV, study area and kitchenette
* Group study rooms
* Individual mailboxes