The University System Board of Regents approved construction last week of a new dormitory at UGA. The 125,000 square-foot building on what is currently a parking lot at the corner of South Lumpkin and Wray streets will include 565 student beds, as well as a dining hall, a health clinic and six to eight classrooms.
UGA has been criticized for contributing to Athens’ housing crisis by not building enough on-campus housing to accommodate growing enrollment. Last year’s freshman class was the largest ever at 6,250 students, and total enrollment could hit 50,000 within the next decade. Last year UGA offered upperclassmen dorm residents $3,500 to move off-campus to make room for incoming freshmen, who are required to live on-campus. The on-campus housing crunch came in spite of the opening of Black-Diallo-Miller Hall, UGA’s first new dorm since it demolished and rebuilt Rutherford Hall in 2013, adding a net of 60 new beds. As the university grows, accommodating non-freshmen has mostly fallen to the private market, leading to a spate of much-maligned luxury student apartment developments downtown and putting upward pressure on rents in neighborhoods near campus.
Construction is scheduled to start in 2024, with the new dorm opening in fall 2026.
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