SeaSquawks: Have UNCW students “enjoyed watching the progress” of the Seahawk Quad?
Katelyn Vargas
Construction of the new UNCW residence halls on Nov. 19, 2019
At UNC Wilmington, construction is all over our campus. Both on-campus and off-campus students have had the opportunity to watch the progress being made to UNCW throughout the past few years.
One construction project is the Seahawk Quad. The Seahawk Quad is where new student housing will be and new places on campus for students to hang out and study. The Office of Housing and Residence Life sent out an email on Nov. 8, 2019, discussing the progress of the first two buildings, Pelican and Sandpiper Halls, and a warning of louder construction in the upcoming weeks.
“I think the entire community has enjoyed watching the progress of our first two buildings (Pelican and Sandpiper Halls)!” the email said.
While expanding our campus is something many students and faculty look forward to, that sentence seems to ignore many of the difficulties that have been faced due to the construction, disruptive noises and traffic being the most prevalent among the community.
To test the claim that Housing and Residence Life made, The Seahawk asked UNCW students how they felt about the construction:
“I have enjoyed watching the development of the new buildings. I do find it annoying to walk around all the construction, but I know in the end it will be a really nice addition to the campus.” – Diego Endres-Munoz, Freshman, Computer Science and Engineering
“I think it has been interesting to see the process that they’ve made each day, but living right next to the construction can be inconvenient with the noise.” – Shannon Fennessy, Freshman, Undecided
“It’s been exciting watching new buildings go up and seeing the campus expanding, which is always a positive. However, living in Belk [residence hall], you could hear the construction as early as 7 a.m., which could disturb sleep, even on a Saturday. I would say that the positives of having new buildings outweigh the noises from construction.” – Anna Todd, Sophomore, Biology with minors in Chemistry and French
“I agree that most of the community has [enjoyed the progress on the two buildings]. I think a lot of people are happy to see our campus expanding and growing, and the people who don’t like it generally just don’t like seeing construction or have been inconvenienced with parking or driving on campus. I know that I’ve experienced a few instances with that, but not that many and it’s not that important. I’m just so excited for the new buildings to be done.” – Gabby Schmidt, Junior, Exercise Science Allied Health Concentration
“I think it’s great! I obviously won’t live there, but I think it looks really cool. I watched the video of what it’s going to look like and the only downside of it is I won’t be here next year to enjoy it. It will be nice to get the pathways over there back and will be a nice place for students to hang out.” – Katelyn Christine, Junior, Early Childhood Education
Overall, students seem to have a positive outlook on the construction despite the disruptions they have had. The inconvenience is a small price to pay in order to have a bigger and better campus here at UNC Wilmington.
What other expansions or renovations do you want to see happen on campus? Are you excited with the progress on Seahawk Quad? Leave a comment below!
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