Coppin State University is planning to construct an eight-story residence hall to build the infrastructure necessary to implement an on-campus residency requirement for freshman and sophomore students.
The planned 109,049-square-foot residence hall will add 350 beds to the university, increasing the total to roughly 1,000 overall. According to a request for proposal (RFP), the university is budgeting up to $40 million for the project. Coppin spokeswoman Robyne McCullough said that the school does not have a firm timeline for when it will require all freshman and sophomore students to live on campus, but added it’d likely be after the new dormitory is built.
Officials say construction on the new dorm is likely to start in 2024.
President Anthony Jenkins told the Baltimore Business Journal that he hopes the residency requirement will boost retention at the Baltimore historically Black university. The institution’s undergraduate enrollment has declined by 46% since 2010, from 3,298 to 1,757 in 2022 and its retention rate lags behind other local HBCUs.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Matt Hooke over at Baltimore Business Journal
