Because of the mold issues in the Southside residence halls discovered last spring, the university has been disussing what the best plan of action is for the resident buildings.
As of fall 2016, students have no longer been allowed to live in the buildings, which has resulted in a loss of about 250 bed spaces for housing.
Since the discovery, the university has hired contractors to look at the buildings and give estimations on different project ideas. The Southsides were the first buildings dedicated to on-campus living.
They have recently also been the home of different student organizations such as ROTC, STEM and Sorority life.
Dr. Kevin Bailey recently visited UWF’s SGA to give an update on the Southside situation.
Although, nothing has officially been decided yet, here are some of the ideas that Dr. Bailey mentioned at the Student Government’s senate meeting a couple weeks ago that UWF’s administration has been bouncing around.
Scenario 1: Turning the Southsides into office space
Scenario 2: Storage space with or without some office space
Scenario 3: Renovating a few Southside buildings for residential use and turning the others into possible office or storage space
Scenario 4: Demolishing the buildings and building something new
All of these ideas are subject to change as housing is seeking funding approval from some internal processes.