This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
Makenzie Morales carefully moves boxes out of the trunk of her car as light rain falls in the parking lot. She pushes a cart full of her things through the new apartment building and up the elevator, through the hallway to her room with the other unpacked boxes.
It’s a series of steps Morales has repeated every day the past 1½ weeks as she slowly moved out of Hatfield Marine Science Center’s old housing complex along Yaquina Bay to the new $16.5 million apartment building next to the Wilder neighborhood in South Beach.
In just three years, the number of students at Oregon State University’s center quintupled from 100 to 500 students. When OSU asked to expand its Hatfield campus, it vowed to develop housing for the influx of students, faculty and researchers to help relieve pressure elsewhere in Newport.
The university is living up to its promise as OSU and Oregon Coast Community College students and university staff begin moving into the 34,000-square-foot 77-unit building.
Less than a mile from the Hatfield campus, the building at 4030 S.E. Harborton St. is three stories tall with corrugated walls and a wood paneled entrance at its center.
“It’s kind of a mix of modern and natural,” said Sidney Noble, Hatfield’s manager for student and campus services In the two weeks since the apartment opened, about 11 people have moved in – a mix of community college and OSU students.
Inside, the hallways still hold the scent of fresh paint, and everything is new. Each room is fully furnished including dishes, cooking utensils, an oven and a full-size refrigerator. Most of the rooms are studio style with twin bunk beds. The building has a handful of other configurations too – larger deluxe studios, two-bedroom family units, and lofts. Some of the windows show a view of the neighboring forest trail and even the Yaquina Bay bridge.
There are shared spaces too – a lounge with large televisions and long tables for gatherings and a community kitchen.
“It’s nice that we provide that experience for the people that are staying here, especially because right now we have a lot of students who go to the community college and who can have that sense of residential community they maybe wouldn’t normally get from community college,” Noble said.
In with the new
Before the new housing development, students, researchers and faculty stayed at the campus’ legacy housing, a series of bunkhouses built in 1972. The bunkhouses were originally intended to be one-bedroom spaces but as the student and staff population grew the rooms often held four students or researchers.
“It’s pretty tight quarters,” said Morales, who is Hatfield’s resident director. Morales lived there as a staff member with their own room and oversaw the other residents.
“It’s kind of like a sleep away camp and I think it has a certain charm, ” Morales said. “I think no matter what you thought going into it most people come out of it with some really great memories they made by the coast and it’s part of the experience.”
The legacy housing can fit about 80 people and during the busy summer months when Hatfield classes are in full swing, there’s often a waitlist, said Mark Farley, Hatfield’s director of business operations.
Hatfield has expanded in a short time with a marine studies degree which explores the intersection of science and humanities to look at social, cultural and political issues marine systems face. In the three years since adding that degree, Hatfield has grown from 100 students to more than 500 students.
“With new courses there’s new students and new faculty,” Farley said.
The historic housing wasn’t just used by Hatfield students and staff. Oregon Coast Community College students also have programs that use the Hatfield campus. Its aquarium sciences program teaches students how to work with different species of fish and other sea animals so that they can work in aquariums, fish hatcheries and aquaculture facilities.
The bunk houses also house people from various internship programs and federal and researchers in need of a place to stay in between research expeditions at sea.
At times people who couldn’t get a space at the campus housing stayed in hotels, at friends’ houses or somewhere in the mid-Willamette Valley.
Initially, draft plans called for a $47 million housing project, but it had to be scaled back, Farley said. The project is being financed with $10 million in OSU-paid bonds and $6.5 million from the Oregon Legislature. The project broke ground last summer as a commitment to provide more housing.
The older housing on the Hatfield campus will still be used for more temporary stays – research crews in between voyages and OSU students fulfilling one credit labs that require a weekend at the coast, Farley said.
Even though the completion of the project is an occasion to celebrate, there’s more that will need to be done to keep up with the growing demand. Soon, officials will have to think of what phase two looks like, Farley said.
“The goal is to get our students off market housing, and we know 150 beds is not enough,” he said.
- Shayla Escudero covers Lincoln County government, education, Newport, housing and social services for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at Shayla@LincolnChronicle.org
