SHERIDAN - Moments after she started unpacking her clothes out of plastic containers, Chelsea Walters made a quick phone call.

"These aren't like dorms," the 20-year-old told her mother via cell phone. "They're like apartments."

Minutes before, Walters had returned to Sheridan College after summer break. Though she knew she was assigned to the new student housing, which was completed over the summer, she had no idea her dorm would look more like a condominium.

While carrying her first armload into the new building, Walters could tell she was in for a new living experience. Her new residence hall looked more like a stylish house, with brick inlay and a wrap-around porch. As she made her way inside, she saw a full kitchen and well-lit living area. Instead of bare concrete walls, stylish fixtures and colorful paint adorned the walls. Communal showers and toilet stalls were absent from her new "villa." Instead, at most, two students will share a bathroom.

It's a far cry from what most students expect to live in when they first arrive at college. It was a pleasant surprise for Walters, who only saw the buildings in the initial construction phase before she headed home for the summer.

"They are really nice," she said. "I had no idea that this is what they would look like."

Unique housing

As classes start today at Sheridan College, nine new buildings are receiving a lot of attention as students make their way across campus. The "villas," as Sheridan College's director of housing and student life, Ginny Racette, refers to them, add 86 beds to the campus and are unlike any other residence hall on campus, or in the state.

"They are unique," she said. "I don't know of anybody in Wyoming that has anything like these."

As community members, faculty, students, parents and potential students toured the new additions to Sheridan College this summer, the feedback was astounding, said Kent Andersen, Sheridan College facilities director.

"Students would say, 'I can live here?' and parents would say, "Dorms didn't look like this when I went to college,'" Andersen said. "These are going to be a great recruitment tool."

Construction on the buildings started in May and crews worked on a quick, thorough construction schedule so students could move in before classes started. In fact, as students moved in throughout the weekend, final projects were still under way. Though the beds were all in place, crews were still moving in desks, tables and chairs and installing locks on doors. Windows and counters were being cleaned, while workers vacuumed the last residues of construction work. Though sidewalks connect the buildings, landscaping will not be completed for several weeks.

"We will have little things going on for weeks," Andersen said.

One building, which is dedicated for faculty, married and non-traditional students, will not be open for occupancy until later this week, Racette said. Those students are either being temporarily housed in hotels or have made arrangements on their own, she said.

"Intellectual energy"

While some buildings have both female and male students living in them, they are not coed residence halls. Instead, some buildings have separate, keyed entrances for the upstairs and downstairs and others have several keyed entrances, separating one set of living quarters for females from the other part for males, Racette said. This year, only upperclassmen were allowed in the buildings that each house eight to 12 students, although Racette said that may change in future years.

The design of the residence halls focuses on the "intellectual energy of people living together, in a neighborhood setting," said John Knapp of Knapp Architecture Design Development, based in Colorado. As Knapp and his team designed the student housing, they photographed several houses in Sheridan and then asked Sheridan College students to pick their favorites.

"It helped them to be more engaged in their community," Knapp said.

While the new buildings house both one- and two-bedroom suites, common areas such as kitchens, living rooms and study areas will encourage interaction between students.

"Research tells us that low density housing really contributes to student success," said Mark Englert, vice president of enrollment at Sheridan College. "This is a community here."

The residence halls, featuring large decks that eventually will boast furniture, also face a common area, creating a neighborhood within the campus, Knapp said.

"We created a place where everyone feels like they are a part of something," Knapp said. "This is about promoting education."

Needed

The need for additional beds has been growing for several years, Racette said. Many students have not been able to live on Sheridan College's campus because the residence halls were full. With a lack of or the high cost of off-campus housing in Sheridan, some students had no choice but to turn to other communities for their college educations.

"We've had waiting lists and have lost students because of a lack of student housing," Racette said.

For several years, college officials have looked for solutions to add more rooms to the campus - even using extra space in existing residence halls.

"We turned everything we could into a room, from computer rooms to quiet studies," Andersen said. "Everything we could put a lock on to make a room, we did."

The additional 86 beds are one step in alleviating the housing crunch. But with the nine new buildings and all other residence halls at capacity, more housing is already needed.

Yet more housing relief is just months away. The next phase of the housing project, which starts this month and should be completed in May, will provide 62 additional beds on campus.

"We've turned down 40 students this year already," Andersen said. "We already need the next phase."

Working with Knapp and the same local contractor, Mike Schumacher of Wright Brothers, the additional residence halls will have a similar design.

Construction costs for the two phases are about $10 million, with 50 percent of the work coming from local contractors. The Whitney Foundation is providing 75 percent of the funding and the rest is coming from a 20-year bond that will be paid for with revenue from the housing, said Cheryl Heath, vice president for administration and chief financial officer for Sheridan College.

"We are at $150 to $160 a square foot including utilities," Andersen said. "That is kind of unheard of anymore."

But Andersen said that doesn't mean corners were cut to keep costs down. The new student housing has in-floor radiant heat and central air and heat, walls as hard as concrete and solid doors.

"I just don't know what we could have done to build a higher quality place," Andersen said. "These are the highest quality student housing for the best price."

For students such as Walters and her downstairs neighbor, Lacey Schulke, it's exciting to be the first ones to live in the new housing.

"It's like a house," Schulke said. "I'm amazed at what they look like."