UC's Calhoun Hall reopens with views of Ohio River from dorms

Madeline Mitchell, Cincinnati Enquirer
·3 min read
1

Calhoun Hall, University of Cincinnati's largest housing facility, reopened on the school's main campus Thursday after 18 months of construction along one of Clifton's busiest streets. The renovation cost UC $80 million.

The dormitory will house nearly 800 residents for the spring semester, and students can start moving in over the weekend. Aside from updated all-gender restrooms, luxurious communal spaces and lots of natural light streaming in, the hall's most stunning feature is its spectacular views: Rooms facing north overlook UC's campus and peer into Nippert Stadium, while rooms facing south display a panoramic of the downtown Cincinnati skyline, the Ohio River and beyond.

McMicken no more: UC cuts ties with slave-owning founder Charles McMicken in unanimous board vote

"Our built environment where we play, where we work, where we live, influences our feelings of belonging to the larger community. And a strong sense of belonging is essential for student success," University President Neville Pinto said during Thursday's ribbon-cutting ceremony. It was the president's first official event of the new year.

Pinto said planning for the renovated building began in 2017. The next phase of the project? Renovating Calhoun Hall's next-door neighbor, Siddall Hall. That dormitory, which first opened in 1964, houses an additional 500 students.

Renovation on Siddall Hall is expected to start this spring and open to students in the fall of 2024.

Siddall Hall will undergo renovations similar to Calhoun Hall over the next year and a half.
Siddall Hall will undergo renovations similar to Calhoun Hall over the next year and a half.

Can UC housing meet needs of rising enrollment?

The university is hoping to enroll 60,000 students (total, including all campuses and online) by 2030, up from its current enrollment of nearly 48,000 students. University Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Jack Miner says the institution is well on its way to meeting that goal, having received 25% more applicants for the 2023-24 school year than last year.

Not all of those students will end up attending UC, Miner clarified, but the university does expect a larger enrollment next school year. Miner is anticipating 500-700 more freshmen than this year's incoming class.

But does UC have enough room to house all of those students?

Student housing: UC plans to add more housing near uptown campus after fall semester shortage

The university ran into a housing shortage at the start of the 2022-23 school year after boasting its largest incoming class in history. Students were placed in local hotels, crammed three to a room in traditional double-occupancy dorms, and some first-year students were sent to live in nearby apartment buildings instead of on campus.

Calhoun Hall is the university's largest dormitory, and can house up to 772 students.
Calhoun Hall is the university's largest dormitory, and can house up to 772 students.

Some of those students are moving into the newly renovated Calhoun Hall this weekend, Miner said. Other Calhoun occupants will be the displaced Siddall Hall students who were booted as that dormitory gets prepped for its own renovation.

The university "always knew there was going to be a pinch during this renovation," Assistant Vice President of Housing Carl Dieso told The Enquirer on Thursday. But Calhoun's reopening poses a great advantage, he said, since it is the university's largest dormitory and has 200 more beds than Siddall Hall.

Now, Dieso said, the university just needs to wait until the private market "catches up." He said that could take another couple of years.

"We always knew there was going to be a pinch during this renovation," Assistant Vice President of Housing Carl Dieso, right, said.
"We always knew there was going to be a pinch during this renovation," Assistant Vice President of Housing Carl Dieso, right, said.

On-campus housing, including Calhoun Hall, will prioritize first-year students as they transition into the college culture and campus living, Miner said. That means more upperclassmen will need to rely on off-campus housing.

"At almost every university, the demand for housing is growing," Miner said, particularly from sophomores, juniors and seniors who are itching for an on-campus experience after enduring remote learning during COVID-19. "One of the things that we've been able to do is really work with private developers in the area to make sure that we have other options available in addition to what we have in our stock."

None of the new off-campus construction projects will be ready for the fall of 2023, though, Dieso said.

Fall 2023 housing applications for incoming first-year students will open Jan. 23 and are due the first week of May. Applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: UC's Calhoun Hall reopens to house nearly 800 students this spring