Student Journalism @ Barton Community College
New Dorms Opened
Jacob Flax, Student Journalist
Barton Community College
Great Bend, Kan.
New Bluestem Dorm on the campus of Barton Communtiy College (photo by Jacob Flax)
The public was invited to a ribbon cutting ceremony on August 7, 2014, to view the new dorms for students at Barton Community College’s Great Bend Campus.
Jonathan Dietz, the Housing Coordinator of Barton Community College, said, “The vision of the new dorms was to upgrade housing and to outfit the campus with more beds.”
The Dean of Administration, Mark Dean, explained more details about the cost and funding of the project when he said,
“Phase V, New Bluestem, started in September 2013 with the major building construction commencing in November 2013. We had four phases of housing before this new addiction was constructed. Phase I, Meadowlark, and Phase II, Old Bluestem, had 4 bedrooms sharing a bathroom that was in the middle of the units. Phase III, Sunflower, had two bedrooms that shared a bathroom in the back of the suite. Phase IV, Cottonwood, has the same style as Sunflower, but the sinks are in the rooms, and the toilet and bathtub/shower is shared between the two bedrooms in the middle of the suite.”
“The old dorms were structured as seven person units. Some of the problems of the old dorms were mainly maintenance issues and the need for a modern feel,” said Dietz.
Students that lived in the old dorms shared their observations.
Zodani, a student who lives in Cottonwood, said, “The Wi-Fi in that building needs to be improved, but other things like air conditioning are pretty good.”
Dean confirmed these concerns by saying, “The rooms had maintenance issues, and were not quite up to date because they didn’t have laundry facilities in the housing complex.”
Dean confirmed that the old housing areas had no asbestos in them because they were built in the 1977-1978 time frame, eight years after the college open its doors.
“I think that the students will have a good experience,” said Dietz. “If the students can keep the dorms at their best, the dorms can last for a long time.”
According to Dean, the dorms should last forty years.
Deanare, a student that has seen the new housing, indicted that New Bluestem rooms have a nice environment.
The contractors were C.V. Cale in Great Bend, KS. The construction alone cost $4.38 million just for the building and a total of $5 million including electrical, windows, doors, and other items that were required to complete the building. Dean said that no tuition dollars were used on this project.
The project was delayed by the cold weather Great Bend experienced in January 2014. The cold snap required the bricklayers to wait for warmer weather to finish their work.
“All of the housing except for Old Bluestem and Meadowlark were built with severe weather in mind,” said Dean. “Old Bluestem and Meadowlark are constructed out of wooden materials. The newer dorms are built with modern amenities, security, and safety in mind.”
This project was supposed to be finished on July 1, 2014, but construction delays pushed the completion date back to the first week in August, 2014, just in time for students to move in at the beginning of the semester.
“New Bluestem can house up to 176 students,” said Dean. “In case we have an increase of students, we will use Meadowlark for an overflow dorm, but if it continues to grow beyond the overflow, we will not go back to the Old Bluestem dorms. We are currently researching how we can best utilize them in the future.”
Link to the ribbon cutting of New Bluestem
Link to Cottonwood, Bluestem (New), and Sunflower Floor Plans:
