Chancellor Glenn Boyce shared insight into new campus construction projects, possible admissions caps and a potential fall semester break during the Associated Student Body’s last informal senate meeting of the semester on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at the Gertrude C. Ford Ole Miss Student Union auditorium.
As enrollment at the University of Mississippi increases each year, parking and housing problems for students continue to surge. Boyce referenced a series of new construction projects set for campus, such as new dorms for freshmen, additional parking lots and housing for upperclassmen.
Planned construction projects include:
- 1,250-bed dormitory on West Row
- Parking garage on Ridge Loop
- Apartments for upperclassmen and graduate students near West Row
- Dining facility near West Row
- Parking garage near West Row
- Patterson School of Accountancy building on Grove Loop
- Classrooms and esports facility in expanded Jackson Avenue Center
- Theater arts workshop in expanded Jackson Avenue Center
The new dormitory on West Row is expected to be ready for occupancy by fall 2027. Boyce also mentioned the building of a new parking garage that should be completed by January 2027, in addition to other housing plans.
“Some two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments for upperclassmen, for graduate students (and) a new dining facility and another parking garage will be built (near West Row). All that’s going to be started within the next year,” Boyce said.
The chancellor called the senate’s attention to the upcoming construction of the new Patterson School of Accountancy building on Grove Loop, as well as some transformations planned for the now empty shopping center connected to the Jackson Avenue Center following the closing of the Malco Oxford Studio Cinema.
“We got the movie theater back across Jackson Avenue — we won’t be doing movies. What we will be doing is having 200 extra parking spots. What we’re going to do there is create classrooms and also put (the new) esports (building) over there,” Boyce said.
Boyce also mentioned plans for a new workshop space for UM’s theater arts program in the former shopping center.
Tuesday’s informal senate gathering gave ASB Senators and legislative aides the opportunity to voice their opinions on campus developments.
Allyson Hamilton, the legislative aide for the Inclusion and Cross-Cultural Engagement Committee and freshman double major in classics and biochemical engineering from Ridgeland, Miss., is cautiously optimistic about some of the university’s upcoming constructions.
“I’m glad that they’re doing something about the lack of parking,” Hamilton said. “However, I’m worried about the aesthetics and logistics of adding a parking garage, when we could cap student enrollment.”
Boyce is against setting a cap on student enrollment, despite introducing the idea of a freshman admissions cap to the ASB Senate in March.
“We can’t afford, at this point in time, to cap enrollment when your trajectory is just flying,” Boyce said. “Only about 13% of the money we receive is from our state or federal entities. If I don’t have you (the students), I don’t have anything. It’s you that is providing the funding to make this university go.”
Boyce concluded with a discussion on the possibility of integrating a fall break into the university school calendar. After introducing the idea, he opened the ASB Senate floor for discussion, and many senators, including sophomore public policy leadership major Paul Winfield of Vicksburg, Miss., approved the idea of a fall break.
“I’m a huge fan of it,” Winfield said. “Especially because I remember back in high school, we had a Friday off, and we had Columbus Day Monday off — and so I feel like that was a really nice way to get away, or at least go home, especially for in-state students.”
While the majority of senators agreed with the implementation of a fall break, there was some objection to the idea, specifically from Nicholas Menendez, a junior mechanical engineering major from St. Louis.
“Personally, I’m against it,” Menendez said. “It’s really good to go to school all straight so over breaks you can work.”
Wilson Engeriser, principal of First-Year Encounters on the ASB President’s Cabinet, also presented the idea of an ASB buddy system that would pair current ASB members with one or two First-Year Encounters members, to be implemented in the upcoming spring. Engeriser is a junior public policy leadership and rhetoric double major from Fairhope, Ala.
“One of the initiatives that I was wanting to do with a partnership with some of the former FYE members is having a sort of mentor-mentee program called ASBuddies,” Engeriser said in an announcement to the ASB Senate body. “The purpose of it is to have a more casual relationship with somebody.”
Boyce touted the university’s educational successes and potential for a brighter future.
“Look at what you guys do. We’re as good as anybody across the nation when it comes to learning. You’ve taken the graduation rate, and the class ahead of you in particular, to a great level, a brand new level, something we never thought we could get,” Boyce said. “And now we’re there — you’re gonna push it to the next level.”
Paul Winfield is an opinion staff writer for The Daily Mississippian.
Wilson Engeriser is a sports staff writer for The Daily Mississippian.
