New Mexico State University’s newest residence center, Juniper Hall, may not open in time for the beginning of the fall 2019 semester. Over the weekend, the university began notifying students who had wanted to move into the facility of the possible delay. All other NMSU residence halls will be ready for move-in day on Aug. 16 and students who had planned to live in Juniper Hall will be accommodated in other facilities until it is ready.
“We are just days away from when students will begin arriving on campus,” NMSU Chancellor Dan Arvizu said. “Getting Juniper Hall completed in time for students is a challenge we have been working on for the past several months. There is still an outside chance Juniper will be ready for occupancy on move-in day, but given where we were last Friday, we made the decision to start calling students assigned to Juniper Hall, and their parents, to tell them there is a likelihood it will not be completed. We are monitoring the situation very closely, and if Juniper is ready, then we will call them back.”
“The safety and comfort of our students is our primary concern,” said NMSU President John Floros. “We won’t move anyone into Juniper Hall until the building is ready and we receive a certificate of occupancy. We anticipate this will only be a temporary situation lasting a few days, or at worst, not more than two weeks. We are taking all necessary steps to minimize the impact on our students.”
Students who had planned on living in Juniper Hall will be given alternate temporary room assignments to report to when they arrive on campus. Room rates for students will be discounted to take into account the time students are not living in Juniper Hall.
Juniper Hall was originally scheduled to be turned over to the university on June 15, with all construction operations completed by July 24. The university has been continuously engaged with the general contractor, meeting with them on a regular basis. NMSU issued a new “demand date” for the facility of Aug. 2, which was not met. While the construction company now has extra personnel working additional hours, the facility is still not complete.
Information from NMSU