UNCW’s newest residential facility, Seahawk Crossing, will be open for student occupancy fall of this year. It consists of four buildings with three floors each and contains four-, six- and eight-person rooms.

Seahawk Crossing will house 662 sophomores and juniors while ten RA’s and DR’s will be hired for the new buildings. Students will be able to lease their room for 10 or 12 months and it will cost $2,725 per semester.

The area will also be home to a convenience store and a Dunkin’ Donuts.

With the new building in tow, Larry Wray, Associate Director of Residence Life, hopes this will bring more students on campus.

Students can sign up to live in the Crossing starting Feb. 16.

The sign-up process is online, but students may also go into the Housing and Residence Life office for help.

“The online system allows you to choose a room assignment from the comfort of your own home using your seaport log-in and an interactive, online system,” said Wray. “Students are still required to turn in a housing contract and pay the $105 application fee in advance.  Once these steps are complete, they simply have to wait until their allocated time, log-in and choose a space.”

“Hopefully there aren’t any computer problems this year,” sophomore Lindsey Sackett said. “I think it is better that sign-up is at 9 a.m. this year instead of midnight. If there is a problem you can go to the Housing and Residence Life building.”

“I do not anticipate any problems or issues outside of the typical minor, short-lived problems associated with operating a complicated web-based system,” Wray said. “We always anticipate a few minor glitches, but our experience has helped us to anticipate and negate many problems before they become system-wide issues.”

The university has been using the online housing assignment process for four years.

“This process is much more efficient than our old system,” Wray said. “It eliminates the need for students to stand in long lines, and it makes the process much fairer to students who have busy class and work schedules.  We feel this process definitely serves the academic mission of our university better as we no longer have students waiting all night for a place in the housing assignment line.”

In the past, students like senior Jordan Williams camped out over night in order to get into the building they wanted to live in.

“I camped out because I really wanted to stay on campus but I didn’t want to live in the suites or the dorms,” Williams said. “Seahawk Village was new and looked very nice. I also liked the fact that you couldn’t be kicked out during breaks because it was a year-long lease.”

He added, “It was a lot of fun camping out.  Everyone kind of bonded together and listened to music and hung out.  It rained that night and was cold but everyone kind of made fun of the situation.”

As for Seahawk Crossing, a tour was held a few weeks ago. Wray said. “Our staff estimated that more than 800 students, faculty and staff took this opportunity to tour the new project. The response was overwhelmingly positive and we feel this has created a great deal of energy and excitement on campus.”

“I am so excited to live in the Crossing next year,” sophomore Kelly Brunner said. “It is so nice and new. I’m glad I get to be part of the first group ever living there.”

However, some have chosen a different route.

“I like that it is all eco-friendly,” said freshman Danielle Bibb. “But it is more expensive and has small rooms with single beds.”

“Our early numbers point to us being able to successfully fill the Village, Landing and Crossing areas and all of our traditional housing spaces as well,” Wray said. “We plan to be at a full occupancy of approximately 4200 students as we begin the fall 2009 semester.”