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Right from the first day, one thing was clear – this was not your basic college dorm.
There was the opening-night meal: a welcome banquet, hosted by Aramark, complete with food stations, with the Chancellor as guest speaker. The on-site dining room, the mail room, the plush front lobby, the oversize bedrooms – all with air conditioning – the private bathrooms, the queen-size beds. Even a special second-floor “learning commons” for uninterrupted late-night study. And a shuttle bus that ferries you to and from campus at 15-minute intervals. Almost like a three-star hotel.
Which, of course, is what it was.
On Aug. 30, a Sunday, UMass Lowell students officially set up housekeeping in the University’s newest residence hall: the 252-room UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center – formerly the DoubleTree Hotel – which the University purchased earlier this year for $15 million. As presently configured, the ICC will house roughly 400 students, mostly upper-class and honors – many of them organized as “living and learning communities” of eight students or more, focused on particular subjects or themes – on the top seven floors of the nine-story building. The lower two floors, once renovations are complete, will continue to be used as a hotel.
“The message we wanted to give them, right from the start, right from that first-night banquet, is that this is different – this is the new UMass Lowell,” says James Kohl, the University’s director of residential life.
The biggest reason for the hotel purchase, of course, was the shortage of student housing: last year, the overflow was so critical the University was forced to house close to 400 students at the Radisson Hotel in Nashua. But there’s more to it than that, says Kohl.
“There are so many resources in the city – the restaurants, the coffee houses, the museums, the galleries, the national park – that we hadn’t tapped into completely before. So we saw this as an opportunity to do that: to expand the University, to bring the city to the students, to really infuse student life. The idea was to make Lowell, in a very real way, a part of the campus – with all the benefits that accrue.”
“Finally this wonderful complex will be utilized to its full potential,” said Lowell Mayor Edward “Bud” Caulfield, who, along with Chancellor Meehan, was there on moving-day to welcome the students and their families. “This [building] plays a vital role in the city. We’re so fortunate to have the students downtown instead of in Nashua.”
To kick-start the integration process, a scavenger hunt on the Monday after move-in took the students into restaurants, museums and businesses all over town: “That was so great, to see all those UML T-shirts running around all over the downtown,” Kohl says, “poking around here and there, meeting people, getting to know the city. It felt really good to witness that – to get the sense that we were really being a conduit for the Lowell experience.”
If student reaction is any indication, the University’s newest residence would seem headed for success. Not only did all of this year’s ICC residents request specifically to live there; many others were turned away. And by the end of moving-in day, every one of the assigned rooms had been claimed and occupied. A 100 percent first-day occupancy — that’s not supposed to happen, says Kohl.
Adrianilda Vasquez, a graduate student in elementary education who lived on campus for five years before she moved into the ICC this fall, says she wouldn’t trade her new digs for anything she’s had before. She’s especially fond of the full-sized beds (as opposed to the “traditional twin-sized ones”), and the TV, the private bathrooms and individualized thermostats. But best of all, she says, is the feeling of living in town:
“It’s great being so close to downtown Lowell, which has really great food and culture, as well as its historical value. I’m excited that the University has connected with the city this way. I’m hoping this new bridge gets stronger. It’s been a really great experience so far.”