New Graduate Student Housing to Allow Alcohol

Concept picture showing the aerial view of the complex’s two halls
Photo from University Student Housing

Texas Tech University is known to be an alcohol-free campus, but a select group of legal, responsible students will soon be allowed to possess alcohol on campus for the first time in the school’s history.

Sean Duggan, the managing director for the university student housing, said the new housing complex currently under construction on 19th Street in the southwest part of the Texas Tech University campus will consist of two buildings, an upperclass hall and a graduate hall.

The graduate hall will have an age requirement to live there, Duggan said.

“So, any student that’s over 21 can live there,” Duggan said, “but we hope that a lot of graduate students will choose to live there, especially law students or health science center students because it’s just so convenient and handy.”

Only around 40 graduate students currently live on campus, Duggan said, but housing would like this number to increase because reaching Tech’s goal of 40,000 students by 2020 requires graduate school growth, too. He said it will be the first residence hall on campus specifically designed for graduate students, and housing hopes the new building will encourage more graduate students to live on campus.

Duggan said students living in the graduate hall will be allowed to have alcohol in the privacy of their own apartment, if they choose, because everyone living in the building will be of legal drinking age. One of the thoughts behind allowing alcohol, he said, is that he does not think most graduate students will choose to live in a place where they are not treated like the adults that they are.

“We feel like: You’re legal. You’re an adult. You can handle this, and students off campus handle it all the time,” Duggan said.

However, he said, residents who are caught serving alcohol to minors or having big, loud parties that are disturbing the living community will face consequences, just like any adult would, and undergraduate students caught with alcohol on campus will also face consequences if they are not of the legal drinking age.

21-year-old students living in any of the other residence halls, even the neighboring upperclassmen hall, with younger students, still have to adhere to housing’s no alcohol policy, Duggan said, because it is too difficult for the staff to know and manage who is and is not legally allowed to have alcohol.

He said the graduate hall will have staff available and working in the building 24/7, he said, but there will not be CAs overseeing each floor as in the traditional halls.

“And, it’s our first property on campus that has full apartments, full kitchens,” Duggan said.

Also, he said, each unit in the graduate hall will have its own washer and dryer.

Concept of 2 bedroom apartment from University Student Housing

Duggan said the graduate hall will be the building closer to the law school and will house around 145 students in one- and two-bedroom apartments. The other building will contain 304 beds and will be open to students who are at least in their sophomore year.

Housing chose to make the new housing complex for upperclassmen, he said, because there currently is not much on campus that serves the older student population.

“We want that engagement,” Duggan said. “We want that feeling of ‘I’m a part of this campus, I just don’t drive in to go to school.'”

Duggan said housing also knows that students tend to have higher four-year graduation rates and higher GPAs the more years they live on campus.

Bills will be issued by semester, not monthly, he said. Payment plans are available through students business services, and students will get a cheaper deal for signing a 12-month lease. Utilities and laundry are included in the pricing.

He said the construction quality will be much better than competitive off-campus apartment options, such as providing better noise control.

“That’s a 100-year building,” he said. “We want it to be there for a long time.”

Student housing will host an open event Wednesday, Feb. 5, for students to help choose which furniture they would like housing to use in the new apartment complex. Voting will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Talkington Hall’s multipurpose room. Duggan said they especially would like the complex’s future residents to come so they can choose which furniture they will be living with.

Housing is also inviting students to come see what kind of art sculptures will be located by the complex on Feb. 7 in the Chitwood/Weymouth classroom from noon to 4 p.m. The artist will be there to take suggestions on what kind of designs students would like to see incorporated into the sculptures.

“Like the attached picture, the steel will have punch outs,” Duggan said in an email. “At night the interior of the piece will be lit, creating interesting, artistic shadows. The artists are interested in feedback regarding these punch outs and is requesting the input of the Tech community.”