New Housing? Groundbreaking.
Excitement builds up for south campus residence hallMeghan McLaughlin The Santa Clara February 1, 2018Donning hard hats and holding golden shovels, members of the Santa Clara community broke ground on the Stephen A. Finn Residence Hall on Tuesday.Students, university officials and City of Santa Clara officials gathered in the former parking lot behind Sobrato Residence Hall to listen to an array of speakers.Finn earned his MBA from Santa Clara in 1976 and currently serves on the Board of Regents, a group of volunteers who provide advice and support to the university President and Board of Trustees.“It’s really a three-dimensional puzzle,” Finn said. “When we look around here, this is one little piece of the physical plan that’s been added to the puzzle along with so many other incredible facilities that are planned, have been built and will be built.”Finn explained that early on as a member of the board of regents, he questioned why the university had such a wonderful campus and only 1,000 freshmen.The solution was to build another residence hall to house the influx of incoming students.“So, I guess I set myself up for this,” Finn said.Finn Residence Hall will be 120,000 square feet and house about 360 students. Sixty-three million dollars will be put into the construction and furnishing of the apartment-style dorm.There will be two gender-neutral bathrooms on the first floor next to the multipurpose rooms.Each of the four stories with three wings are complete with a common area for students.In attendance at the groundbreaking was Patrick Tavelli, a 2016 bioengineering graduate who lent his talents to the plans for Finn Residence Hall.The hall, formerly called the South Campus Residence, had a steering committee that put together various plans.Tavelli altered these plans to enhance the layout of the building and helped the committee design the building to maximize student interaction.President Michael Engh, S.J. and ASG Senate Chair Alyson Motzel spoke of the role of residence halls in a first-year student’s college experience.“It becomes like the new neighborhood in their new hometown of campus,” Engh said. “There’s a sense of pride and community that exists in each of our residence halls.”Vice Mayor of Santa Clara Kathy Watanabe offered remarks following an invocation performed by Arthur Liebscher, S.J., a rector for the Santa Clara Jesuit Community.Finn Residence Hall is planned to be completed in July 2019.Weekly updates on the progress of the hall can be found at: https://www.scu.edu/living/stephen-a-finn-residence-hall/Contact Meghan McLaughlin at mhmclaughlin@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.