IUPFW to build campus housing

IU-Purdue at Fort Wayne will build residence halls housing for 500 students after gaining approval for on-campus housing from the Purdue board of trustees Friday.\nThe school has considered on-campus housing for about 20 years, said IPFW Chancellor Michael Wartell. The proposal began taking shape in 1997, when IPFW commissioned a survey of housing in the immediate campus area. The study indicated a shortage of available housing, Wartell said. \nA 1999 survey of IPFW students showed an interest in campus residential housing. Of 2,000 surveys returned, half said they would either definitely live in on campus housing or strongly consider it, Wartell said.\nIPFW is currently looking at two different methods of funding the construction, which Wartell said he hopes to have completed in fall 2002.\nThe campus could have a private developer build residence halls on land leased to them by the university, with the residence halls becoming IPFW property after a specified amount of time. The other method would be the standard way of constructing residence halls, which is dealt with internally through the Purdue University bonding authority, Wartell said.\nWartell said he is hopeful on-campus housing would contribute to a larger sense of community on campus.\n"I think it will change the culture considerably," he said. "On most commuter campuses students focus their lives away from the campus and so campus culture is almost nonexistent. When there are resident students, culture develops on the campus. Those students focus their lives on campus and it draws in commuter students"