bernthala@lopers.unk.edu
Notable improvements to UNK student housing are on the horizon. Construction of Martin Hall, along with a current maintenance project on Antelope Hall, are projects underway. Others are in the pipeline.
The division of student affairs oversees these projects.
“Adressing fraternity and sorority housing was part of our master plan and was one of our priorities out of the gate,” said George Holman, the associate dean in the division of student affairs. “Once we’re out of this project, we’ll be able to address some of the other housing things we need to take care of.”
Antelope Hall, which is part of upper-division housing, is undergoing a maintenance project to remedy water damage discovered prior to the fall 2021 semester.
Martin Hall is under construction and will provide new Fraternity and Sorority Life housing. After Martin Hall, a new sorority building will be constructed for FSL.
The current UNK fraternity and sorority housing was built in the 1990s.
“We have taken everything down to the studs, as they say,” Holman said. “What we’re doing is we’re renovating Martin Hall and there’s also going to be a new building that comes up.”
The new building will house sororities, while a newly renovated Martin Hall will house fraternities.
“One of the reasons why we kept Martin standing is because we knew that the building could be very versatile and we could go in and redesign it however we wanted to,” Holman said.
On the inside, the first floor will mainly be lounge space. The basement will have chapter rooms where meetings will be held. On the second and third floors there will be student beds.
Most of the design of the building will be standard for resident living, however, there will be elements of the new FSL buildings that students will have input on. For example, students will have a choice between a palette of paint colors. Students have been involved since day one with their feedback. The input of students translates to a goal of UNK Residence Life to create new excitement.
“Whenever there’s new facilities involved there tends to be some new excitement, and it will definitely make it easier to recruit new members who might want to be part of the housing,” Holman said.
Martin Hall’s deadline is spring of 2023.
During summer of 2021, it was discovered that water damage caused some rotting in the Antelope housing building. A window ledge on the fourth floor of Antelope Hall tilted forward, leading to water damage across all four floors.
“The damage took 24 rooms off line,” Holman said. “So hopefully we will have those all back online in January.”
This many rooms is the equivalent of one stack of suites.
Initially, the building was intended to house students for the fall 2021 semester.
The rot required the relocation of the Freshman and Teachers Learning Academy. The goal of the maintenance on Antelope is to repair the damage, but the Antelope Hall repairs are also weather-dependent. Once necessary repairs are made, the hope is to have students living in the Antelope rooms again by January 2022.