Mississippi College Constructs New Residence Halls in 2014

Mississippi College students welcome the construction of new residence halls on the Clinton campus. Work on the three-story structures will begin in the spring of 2014.

The units on the East Campus will contain 189 beds and help ease the university’s housing crunch due to growing enrollments for more than a decade.

“For students living on campus, this will be good,” said Mississippi College junior Andrew Welch, 20, of Jackson. When prospective students weigh choices where to attend college, “facilities are huge,” said the 2011 Northwest Rankin High graduate. “Having good living space is a big deal.”

Enrolling 5,030 students in the fall, Mississippi College is experiencing a shortage of on-campus housing that dates back several years.

When President Lee Royce became the institution’s leader in 2002, there were 3,300 students enrolled. In Fall 2013, MC officials reported a record 615 freshmen and that stepped up housing demands at the Baptist-affiliated university.

Building new residence halls to meet student needs “says a lot about the university,” Welch adds. The Christian Studies major loves the convenience of living on the 320-acre Clinton campus since he first enrolled.

Mississippi College senior Daniel Pitner, 21, says many students are delighted the Christian university is building its first new residence hall since the late 1990s.

Construction on the site of the former Clinton Junior High property should be a popular spot for prospective MC students taking campus tours, Pitner said. A nursing major graduating in December 2014, the Booneville resident joins many classmates eager to see the spring groundbreaking.

The new housing units should be open for student occupancy by the fall of 2015. Construction of the units should begin in April or May 2014. The units will contain 11,000 square feet of space, university leaders say.

Generally, there are six living units per building, each containing four separate bedrooms, two full baths, a closet, plus connecting living and kitchen areas, said Steve Stanford, vice president for administration and government relations. In addition, there will be two special needs units equipped with one less bedroom. There will be a resident director apartment built as well.

“These units will offer students an attractive residential option and assist us in meeting our current demands for campus housing,” Stanford said. “This project also enables us to further extend MC’s activities onto the East Campus.”

The university’s East Campus presently contains a Mississippi College band hall and houses studios, classes and offices for MC Department of Art graduate students.