Monday, Aug. 30, 2004 | 10:59 a.m.
When Minnesota native Cindy Jensen, 18, decided to come to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for her college education, she was just looking for somewhere where it didn't snow.
But as she made her new twin bed Friday and anticipated the arrival of her roommate from Hawaii, Jensen said she was impressed with her new home at UNLV's Dayton Complex -- a brand-new, high-tech residence hall with suite-style rooms, large laundry rooms, gym facilities and lounges that overlook the Las Vegas Strip.
"It's bigger than what I expected," Jensen said as she surveyed the length of her corner room and pointed out the closet space and an adjoining bathroom she'll share with three other girls. "Usually they are a lot smaller, but this is a really nice, brand-new dorm room."
The 475-resident capacity, $21 million Dayton complex is UNLV's attempt to draw more students like Jensen into the residential life of the community. In a city where most college students commute to class, university officials have made it a priority to create a hub of student life that can tie people to the campus.
"UNLV has been known as a suitcase or a commuter campus," Richard Clark, director of residential life, said. "We're trying to change that image."
In addition to the new residence hall, the first one built on the campus since the early 1990s, the university is renovating the Moyer Student Union and planning a new recreation center just across from the Dayton Complex, Clark said. The campus additions are funded through students fees and not through state funds.
But the university has a long way to go in creating a true residential campus, Clark said, as only about 1,600 students are enrolled in on-campus housing this year out of 26,000 students total. The Dayton Complex, however, has eliminated a waiting list to get into campus housing that historically has had up to 150 students on it and supplied the university with about 300 more open slots to meet future housing needs, Clark said.
The university is still taking housing applications for this year, and expects to have a waiting list again as soon as next fall, Clark said.
Like the other three residence halls on campus, the Dayton Complex is designed to create a home away from home for the students, Clark said. There are large lounge areas, a shaded outdoor courtyard, meeting and classroom space and computer labs, plus programming to help students get involved and residential advisers on each floor to aid both new and returning students navigate their way through college.
"We really tried to put this building together so that people will do things socially rather than stay behind closed doors," said Clark, adding that he hopes the on-campus housing will help students will form lifelong friendships.
"We provide something that I don't think an apartment can."
The social lure and convenience of campus life is what most students moving in Friday say brought them to the campus.
"You gotta love the dorms, you gotta love being on campus," said Robby Jumper, 18, a sophomore business major from Pomona, Calif., said.
Fellow sophomore criminal justice major Chad Steele, 19, of Long Beach, Calif., agreed.
"It's the place to be."
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