UAT Breaks Ground On Major New Student Residence

Author: by Beth A.

The University of Advancing Technology (UAT), an institution focused on new and emerging technologies including game courses, has broken ground for construction of a new $10.6 million student residence facility. The official ceremony, hosted by UAT Provost, David Bolman, included Tempe Mayor, Hugh Hallman and other Arizona leaders in the fields of education, government and business. UAT was one of the first colleges in the world to offer a Bachelor's degree with a major in Game Design. UAT students learn skills on state-of-the-art hardware and software, with classroom instructors who have worked in the video game industry. UAT’s first on-campus campus dorm will welcome its first residents in the fall of 2007. The three-story building, with accommodations for more than 250 students and resident staff. To nurture community, the design of the 56,000 square feet building includes more than 20,000 square feet of open space where students can gather, including a game room, exercise room, theater, lounge, study rooms, laundry facilities and an extended-hours kitchen. "We wanted to devote as much space as we can to promote community activity - a lot of shared space and places where people can sit and pull out a game and play it, or pull out a network and wire it up," Bolman said. The online roommate matching database allows students to enter living and social preferences and to search for compatible students as roommates. Each floor has a current student who serves as Resident Assistant and the Dorm Manger lives on-site. Security is a high priority and the university has invested in the systems and personnel to keep UAT a safe, always-open campus. Jason Pistillo, the university’s Vice President said, "Parents have much more input on where the student lives than where they go to college. Students have what they like, but parents are paying for the housing and their first priority is safety and security."