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The university’s Metropolitan Center is seeking community input regarding FIU’s 2005-2015 Campus Master Plan. The center is soliciting feedback as part of its evaluation of the plan.
Dario Gonzalez, a research associate with the center, has set up a Facebook discussion board to encourage an open exchange on this plan and to help develop and identify major issues. This discussion board will encourage comments on a new topic every few days. Gonzalez will also post related questions concerning the topic.
The Campus Master Plan provides a vision for the future development of the university and reflects the planned growth of the physical spaces at Biscayne Bay Campus, the Engineering Center and Modesto A. Maidique Campus. Metropolitan Center researchers are tasked with determining, in part, its efficacy.
“We’re working closely with the university’s Worlds Ahead Strategic Plan as part of this process,” says Gonzalez. “Now that the strategic plan has set the goals for the university, we need to make sure that the Campus Master Plan will take us there.”
“Comments can begin their own conversations. As long as they’re relevant to the topic, we encourage them,” says Gonzalez. “The goal is to inform and be informed by the FIU community.”
The first topic for discussion is housing. FIU currently houses close to 10 percent of full-time students on-campus. The number of full-time students is projected to grow by 5-6 percent annually for the next decade. Currently, the Campus Master Plan has a goal of providing housing for nearly 7,000 students by 2015. Gonzalez wants your perspective on this question: What obstacles could keep FIU from reaching this goal?
Gonzalez says every comment will be noted. Later, the comments are grouped by theme. After that, personal interviews with university leaders will be conducted. The feedback will culminate in an urban studio scheduled tentatively for fall 2011 that will be open to everyone.
In addition to Facebook, you may leave comments at the end of this news post that pertain to this discussion.
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When he says “provide housing to 7000 students”, I don’t know whether he means to have that capacity or to have 7000 students opt for on-campus living.
If it’s the latter, I think the housing expenses will be a big factor. If the student can find an apartment close to either of the campuses at a cheaper rate than the on-campus offerings, the student will go there without any second thoughts.
Brandit this is a good point. University campuses have a finite amount of space and residential units. Construction costs will also influence the price of on-campus housing. If students find apartments close to FIU campuses, how would they travel between home and school?
If the apartments are close enough, there are several options. You can walk, ride your bike, catch the Sweetwater shuttle, or catch bus 71.
At the rate that FIU is expanding, there won’t be much space for much more housing if we building garages and non-housing buildings, unless we acquired the neighboring fairgrounds (which would be costly to purchase and level, and this money can be better spent on improvements).
I think the creation of more housing for students that want to live on campus is essential to the growth of FIU. Yes, off-campus housing is significantly cheaper, but it’s not the same. As a Miami native that commuted to FIU for his first half of undergrad and lived on campus for the second half, I can say that living on campus was one of the best choices I ever made. I could have easily saved money by staying in my parents house, but I would have never had the college experience. Living on campus provided me opportunities to make new friends, become involved in student organizations in school, and many other things that I wouldn’t have experienced commuting everyday.