Board of Governors returns to FGCU; $30 million dorm approved

Florida Gulf Coast University hosted the Board of Governors meeting last week for the first time since 2005. The board, which was created in 2003, is a group of 17 members chosen to oversee Florida’s universities.

The meeting discussed changes and plans for state universities, but FGCU may have the biggest change coming to its campus.

The Board of Governors unanimously approved the construction of a 13th dorm on campus.

The new residence hall would cost approximately $30 million and could house up to 520 students.

It was stated during the meeting that the dorm is needed because enrollment is up and students need an affordable option for a place to live. President Bradshaw said the new dorm is still in the planning stages, however.

“We haven’t made a decision yet on when we’re going to build that next residence hall. We’ll be talking about that over the next few weeks and make that decision,” he said.

For the past six years, FGCU’s residence halls have had an occupancy rate above 99.8 percent.  Bradshaw said this only escalates how important and necessary the new dorm is.

“For all practical purposes, our residence halls are at capacity and if we don’t build one, and we wont for next year I’m sure, we’re going to have a waiting list and we’re going to have students and their parents, especially freshman students, who are going to want to be  in a quality residence hall and we won’t have enough room to accommodate everyone who wants that,” he said at the Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday.

Bradshaw went on to express his delight that so many students do live and want to live on campus.

“We have 4,200 students living in our residence halls. That’s phenomenal! We’ve obviously created a product that is in high demand.”

At the meeting, it was also decided that Academic Building 5 would become Edwards Hall, being named after former Board of Governors member Charlie Edwards.

Edwards later spoke at the meeting and said he was impressed with the improvements and tremendous growth FGCU has made in its short history.

It was also decided at the meeting that Academic Building 5 will become Edwards Hall after former Board of Governors member Charlie Edwards, who spoke at the meeting.

“Isn’t it great what (FGCU president Wilson Bradshaw) and others have done. This was a cow pasture a few years ago,” Edwards said.