New dining hall on Edinburg campus also OKโd by Board of Regents
Incoming UTRGV freshmen carry their items to Heritage Hall Friday morning on the Edinburg campus. During its meeting last May, the University of Texas Board of Regents approved construction of a new $135 million student housing and dining hall project. Completion of the project is scheduled for February 2027.ย Angel Ballesteros/THE RIDER
UTRGV will build a new dormitory and dining hall on the Edinburg campus, university officials said.
During its meeting last May, the University of Texas Board of Regents approved construction of a new $135 million student housing and dining hall project. Completion of the project is scheduled for February 2027, according to the agenda packet.
Stephen Hirst, associate vice president for Student Affairs, said there is no set date yet for the construction to begin.
โWeโve not had a groundbreaking ceremony date announced yet,โ Hirst said. โIโm looking forward to the groundbreaking whenever that date is set.โ
He said the new complex will be constructed in two phases.
The complex will consist of single, double and single max rooms. The single max would be the size of a double room for one person.
โThe beauty of that is, say we have students on the waitlist to get in and they really wanna live in the new residence hall โฆ and so then we could take those single max rooms and convert them to doubles, and it will look the same as the other doubles,โ Hirst said.
According to the Board of Regents agenda packet, โthe proposed project will construct a residence hall to provide 550 beds.โ
Eduardo Menezes, a UTRGV tennis player majoring in management, said he has had a great experience in the short time he has lived at the current residence halls.
โIt has been pretty good,โ Menezes said. โEverybody is really welcoming and really connected, and it has been fun. I think being at the dorms gives you a great experience of seeing other teams and meeting international kids as well. It is a good college experience.โ
The plans also include โa dining facility with seating capacity for 500 students,โ according to the boardโs agenda book.
The dining hall will be larger than what is currently located on campus, and it can be converted into a full-time catering kitchen that has the ability to serve at university events, according to a university news release.
Freshman Jurguen Areano frequents the existing dining hall and loves the services that are provided.
โIt is pretty good, it has a pretty good price, you can eat all you want for a good price so I like it,โ Areano said. โI would really be interested in [the new dining hall]. I would recommend it to a lot of people to go.โ
The last time a residence hall was built was almost two decades ago, Hirst said.
โI can tell you that throughout the process thus far, like we do with everything, we look around the state and we say we want to be one of, if not the most affordable for our students,โ he said.
