The Jacksonville State University Board of Trustees on Tuesday approved several items that members believe will aid the school in its ongoing housing shortage and facilitate improvements that have been in the works for several years. 

“This has been, by far, the most productive we have been at a meeting to get this done since I first joined the board,” said Randy Jones, board chairman. 

The first project, called “The West Campus Project,” allows JSU President Don Killingsworth to enter into a contingent agreement with “a qualified developer” to build a new student apartment complex on land located near Rudy Abbott Field at Jim Case Stadium and the Gamecock Track and Field Complex. 

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“We are currently short 1,000 beds for students here, and that will be a continuing issue until something is done,” Jones explained. “This complex will allow us to have a way to alleviate that easier.” 

The agreement would allow a developer to build the complex at no cost to the university provided the project stays in accordance with all laws and regulations regarding housing and construction. The developer will be bound to a ground lease with the university to build on its property, and also would be responsible for paying JSU to maintain the property. 

Once completed, the complex will allow students to pay a monthly rent to live on the property, similar to other off-campus apartment complexes such as Gamecock Village and The Roost. 

This new housing expansion also comes with the addition of two new dormitories at JSU. Originally, these dorms were to be built alongside the JSU football stadium expansion. However, Jones said that would no longer be possible given the rise in construction prices.

“Just to lay the foundation of this expansion would cost the university around $27 million,” he explained. “So we have opted for a new design that still allows for new dining and football offices to be built, but adds additional housing elsewhere.” 

“This has all been allotted through our campus master plan,” added Killingsworth. 

Both Jones and Killingsworth said these new dorms would be built behind Logan and Patterson Halls, which currently serve as housing options for first-year students. According to Jones, these new dorms would also serve the same purpose. 

“It not only allows the university to save money but it also allows us to better handle the housing shortage here on campus,” he added. “It will also allow us to add more beds than we originally planned for.” 

However, the stadium expansion was not the only JSU project to see some adjustments during Tuesday’s meeting.  

Originally slated for the land where the JSU Alumni House once stood before the March 2018 tornadoes, the Randy Owens Performing Arts Center was almost considered a lost cause because of the rise in material prices. 

“The estimated costs of the project went up from $35 million to almost $75 million in the span of a couple years,” Jones said. “It got to a point where the project was cost prohibitive.” 

However, the project is now getting the go ahead thanks to the trustees approving the university’s purchase of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville for “no more than” $6 million.  

The resolution for the purchase said the property was “consistent with long-term and long-range strategic plans,” citing the new performing arts center as part of that plan. 

“This purchase will now allow us to have 45,000 square feet of space for the center and is a very promising area,” Jones said. “The church has said that the money received from the purchase would go toward the construction of a new church.” 

Jones said once the deal is approved by the church, they will be moved out by August, which will allow JSU to officially incorporate the space beginning in the Fall 2022 semester for recital space and rehearsal rooms for the Marching Southerners. 

It was not the only major purchase potentially approved by the trustees. A house at 601 North Pelham Road, called in the resolution Magnolia Place, is said to be going on the market soon, and JSU intends to purchase it. 

Magnolia Place was originally built in 1850 by Dr. E. W. Daugette, an ancestor of former JSU President Clarence Daugette. Jones said the university wants to purchase the property to convert it into a new president’s house. 

“Once this deal moves forward and we move the president’s family there, we will be working to turn the current president’s house into a visitors center and alumni house,” he said. 

JSU will likely recoup some of the money from these purchases through another resolution approved by the trustees. It will allow JSU to officially sell or lease Forney Hall, a former men’s dormitory built in 1927 that was last used in 2013 for married students. 

“Forney Hall is a historic structure of the university and is one of the four main buildings that remain of the Jacksonville State Normal School,” the resolution read. “It has been used by JSU for many purposes and is not currently inhabitable.” 

With this resolution, the university will begin to accept bids on the property with plans to sell it to the highest bidder possible. The resolution also obligates the developer using the space to keep Forney within the name and its “historic nature in its best interest of the university,” along with the restoration of historical markers to the property. 

The next Board of Trustees meeting is Oct. 18 at the Little River Canyon Center.