ASU to turn Lake Havasu City hotel into campus housing

LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. (AP) - Arizona State University students in Lake Havasu City will have a place to call home this fall.

The school is expecting to close this month on the purchase of a vacant Lake Havasu City hotel that will become on-campus housing, according to ASU officials. ASU Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs David Young says the school will renovate the building and have it ready for move-in by Aug. 1.

“There’s a fair amount to do,” Young said. “We’ll be working on it until they day they need it.”

The property will offer single and double-occupancy rooms for 160 students, the Today’s News-Herald reported (https://bit.ly/1FZ4z34). There will be no kitchenettes but students will have an expanded meal plan, Young said.

ASU students have been relegated to a Days Inn since summer 2012. The students make up a small gated community. They get cable TV, utilities, parking and access to the pool and whirlpool but no room service. They are only supplied breakfast on campus. They get to be close to attractions such as the Bridgewater Channel and where the spring break activities are. But they also have to endure long walks to campus on hot days.

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” said Cortez Fields, a freshman from Los Angeles. “You do have to walk a mile or two up to school.”

Fields said he decided to move to Lake Havasu because it was affordable and he considers ASU one of the top business schools.

ASU Colleges at Lake Havasu City bills itself as offering undergraduate degrees with lower tuition than at Arizona’s research universities. Young said the school is committed to having a strong presence in the area. Relocating dorms will only help draw more students, he added.

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Information from: Today’s News-Herald, https://www.havasunews.com