President discusses campus housing at pizza event

This college will offer student housing to be available by October 2013 that includes furnished apartments with paid utilities and a parking garage, President Robert Zeigler said Thursday at Pizza with the President in the Fiesta Room of Loftin Student Center.

The event was sponsored by the Student Government Association to give students a chance to question administrators.

He referred to the Tobin Lofts project, a public-private partnership that will be built at the northwest corner of North Main Avenue and East Laurel Street.

The project consists of a 1,000-space parking garage; a four-story, 150-unit residential development; and 63 residential units in a third building at Evergreen Street and Main.

Amenities include a fitness center, theater room and swimming pool. Each apartment will have a flat screen television.

The rent will start at $600 to $700 per month, he estimated.

By the end of this month, there will be a rental office on campus in the continuing education annex on West Dewey between Belknap Place and Lewis Street, Zeigler said.

Nursing freshman Jeannie Ochoa asked, “ Is the nursing program going away?”

Zeigler replied, “No, 60 percent of nurses in our area come from SAC.”

Business administration sophomore Scott Rivera complained to administration about the treatment of veterans.

His main concern was the number of counselors working with veterans.

“We’re being rejected by counselors as soon as they hear the word VA,” he said.

Dr. Robert Vela, vice president of student affairs and interim vice president of academic affairs, responded the college is in the process of giving veterans a new facility as well as a new director.

The space formerly occupied by the veterans affairs office on the second floor of Moody Learning Center is undergoing renovation.

Before the first slice of pizza was even handed out, around 100 people were waiting in line. By the end of the event, another 100 people had a free lunch.

Justin Wideman, secretary of Student Government Association, said it was a “great event and students stayed around to address questions that might not have come across before.”

SGA donated about 10 boxes of pizza left over to SAMM Ministries.