Tour of new University of Michigan-Flint dorm leaves crowd amazed

By Beata Mostafavi | The Flint Journal
April 21, 2008

Stuart Bauer | The Flint Journal

A view of the new building on the UM-Flint campus in Flint on Monday shows the size of the 82-suite dormitory that boasts 310 beds.

FLINT, Michigan -- A year ago, it was a parking lot full of cars. Soon, it will be home for hundreds of students.

University of Michigan-Flint officials on Monday gave their first inside peek at the new residence hall being built in downtown Flint -- showing off sunlit suites still sporting bare wooden frames, a soon-to be lounge and laundry rooms on every floor.

"It looks like a big house," said former University of Michigan-Flint Chancellor Juan Mestas of a four-bedroom suite. "They have it made. I want to live here.

"I had no idea what to expect. I'm astonished."

Stuart Bauer | The Flint Journal

Former University of Michigan-Flint Chancellor Juan Mestas (center) takes the tour of the new dormatory with other university officials and local media on Monday.

Mestas, known as the visionary behind the historic project that took years to get off the ground, joined community members taking tour of the four-story building, the exterior of which is nearly finished.
Students move in Aug. 24.

So far, the university has received 250 applications from incoming freshmen for the 310-bed housing facility and 45 current students have applied.

The tour Monday came almost exactly one year after the UM Board of Regents approved the design of the first downtown residence hall.

During the festivities, dozens of people watched as the UM-Flint flag was hoisted over the 82-room building, flapping in the wind, while student musicians played "Hail to the Victors."

Mestas, who retired last year and returned Saturday from four months of travel, clapped and shook his fists in the air with the rest of the crowd to the university's fight song.

"We spent some time fighting for it," he said, recapping the days when it took strong persuasion for the Board of Regents to approve downtown student housing in Flint.

Now, walking through hallways where the first resident students will soon roam, the room where they will probably grab late night snacks and spot where they will likely lounge on couches, he said it was all worth it.

"It's incredible. It looks so much better than what I had in my mind," he said with a laugh of the long talked about dream that now stood where a parking lot of cars was a year ago. "It's a symbol of growth."

Stuart Bauer | The Flint Journal

A view of the University of Michigan-Flint campus is seen from the upper floors of the new dormitory on Monday

Resident advisor Rhonda Phinisee, 21, said she was impressed with the building she will live in just four months from now.

"I was afraid it was going to be small," she said of her room. "But there are stovetops and sinks in the rooms and it's as big as my bedroom now (at home)."

"The community is going to come together and campus life is going to improve," the Flint native added of housing. "Socially, things will be stepped up."

Mary Jo Sekelsky, UM-Flint Vice Chancellor for Student Services, excitedly pointed out all of the building's features as she wandered through the rooms.

"My feet haven't touched the ground for weeks," she gushed. "Now that we are able to walk the floor, touch the walls, climb the steps, look out the windows, it has become very real."

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