“New Housing Selected for a New Campus,” Ensign, Apr. 2006, 77–78
New Housing Selected for a New Campus
Select floors of the Plaza Hotel will become student housing for LDS Business College this fall as the school makes its transition from its present location in Salt Lake City to its new campus at the Triad Center downtown. The housing arrangement with the hotel will be used for at least a year and then evaluated.
Located on the block immediately west of the Salt Lake Temple, the Plaza Hotel will house 132 female students and 2 head residents while the remaining floors will continue to host hotel patrons. Four of the 13 floors will be designated as student housing.
“It hasn’t been done before that we’re aware of,” said Matt Tittle, assistant dean of students and housing director for LDS Business College. “But we’re excited about it.”
The decision to move the students to the Plaza location, Brother Tittle said, was made because the hotel is only one and one-half blocks from the new campus. In addition, a TRAX (light rail) station is located just in front of the hotel. With a discounted UTA education pass, students will have direct access to public transportation right outside their door.
Brother Tittle said the residents in the current dorms at LDS Business College are well behaved and should continue to be good neighbors when housed in the hotel.
On-campus housing for male and married students will remain at the old campus about a mile (1.6 km) east of the Triad Center. The South Hall will provide housing for 60 male students, and the North Hall will provide 11 apartments for married students. These units, unlike the rooms at the Plaza Hotel, have been remodeled over the last four years and include kitchens.
Students at the hotel will be required to purchase a food plan since there will be no cooking facilities in the rooms. However, plans call for a few central kitchens and lounge areas to be provided for residents.
Single female residents currently living in the LDS Business College dorms will be required to vacate by the end of June, and the college is discussing transportation options with UTA officials for the male and married residents at the old location.
The LDS Business College intends to move its campus to the Triad Center, just north of the Gateway shopping district, by this fall. The decision to move the college is part of the Church’s downtown revitalization project. Plans on what will be done with the old business college property, including the Enos A. Wall Mansion that has been home to the campus for 40 years, have not been released.
The college is home to 1,275 students, including approximately 300 international students from more than 50 countries. It currently has 112 students living in on-campus housing, but the addition of rooms in the Plaza Hotel in the fall will make more housing available.