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OREM — Utah Valley University, for the first time in its history, will be able to welcome first-year students with an on-campus housing option through a new public-private partnership announced Monday.
The partnership between the university and The Green on Campus Drive will provide 500 beds for incoming students. The Green on Campus Drive is a student housing community that sits at 499 W. 960 South, across the street east of the university's Orem campus
While The Green is providing the housing portion of the partnership, UVU will be providing The Green with residential community leaders "who will be at that complex and will provide ongoing support for students," said Alexis Palmer, UVU's dean of students.
"But also (a) focus on programming, social connectedness, all those things related to a student who is coming to the university for their first time as a freshman," Palmer added.
The residential community leaders will be UVU students who help first-year students navigate life in college and connect them to academic and social resources at the school. So, if you're a first-year UVU student living in The Green with a penchant for, say, ballroom dancing, a residential community leader could likely get you set up with a club.
Palmer said the university is hiring and training residential community leaders to prepare them for the upcoming academic year. Unlike traditional resident assistants at on-campus student housing at other schools, residential community leaders won't be tasked with any conduct issues. That will all fall into the hands of The Green.
"We're really just focused on that programming and (the) supportive services piece of it," Palmer said.
Although UVU has residential community leaders at other housing complexes around Orem, the latest partnership represents the university's first housing venture located on campus and focused on a specific subset of students.
"Having freshmen at The Green is significant because UVU has never had on-campus housing, and research shows that type of living enhances learning experiences for first-year students," Palmer said, adding that research has shown when students live around peers and close to campus, academic achievement and completion rates go way up.
But above all else, Palmer and UVU are hopeful the new partnership will create a community and sense of belonging at UVU.
"Now we're going to be able to create a place for our freshmen students who — not just when they're at UVU going to classes, but now when they go home, too — they can feel like they're part of something," Palmer said.
