Boise State Honors College has a new home

The new Boise State University Honors College, sitting dominantly across from the Student Union, gives the college its first full-fledged home after nearly 40 years of honors programming.

The honors program, started in 1969, was upgraded to an Honors College in 1998 but since then has functioned in an improvised fashion in Driscoll Hall with two offices relegated to the basement.

The new Honors College opened 103 units with 292 beds to honors students Aug. 16, just days after principal construction was completed. A rear wing called Sawtooth Hall has 108 units with 332 beds for freshman students and is not part of the Honors College, said Craig Wack, public relations coordinator at EdR, a Memphis-based developer/owner/manager of nationwide student housing that built and owns the $40 million Honors College/Sawtooth Hall structure.

Boise State leases the building and will assume ownership in 50 years.

Honors College Dean Andrew Finstuen for the past few years has seen that the college’s Driscoll Hall days were numbered as Honors College enrollment has soared from about 550 two years ago to the current 940. With the backing of BSU President Bob Kustra, a 236,000-square-foot, five-story multi-wing Honors College was approved to increase the honors student housing from 80 at Driscoll Hall to 306.

“We doubled in size in the last couple years and we doubled staff,” Finstuen said. “Now we have space to accommodate both.”

The Honors College is principally student housing. Only 4,330 square feet make up the Honors College’s three classrooms, offices and hallway, but the college is also about living, dining and extra-curricular activity.

“It’s a true living, learning community,” said Finstuen, who moved into his new office Aug. 7, two days before the sidewalk concrete was poured.  “They live here. They learn here. It’s almost like Oxford and Cambridge, where there are individual colleges and you live there. The dining hall is going to help add to the community.”

The Honors College has its own 14,720-square-foot dining area, though it’s open to all students. The three classrooms double as space for extra-curricular activities, donor events, honors advisory board meetings along with distinguished speaker addresses to honors students, he said.

The classrooms have a capacity for 48 but class sizes will be capped at 25.

For now, one of the three classrooms is set up more as a student lounge with courses taught in the other two classrooms.

So far, in the opening weeks, the classrooms are mostly filled with 25 sections of freshman introduction to the Honors College and three sections of finishing courses for graduating honors students. Course work, for now, is limited to honors introductions to art and theater.

Other honors courses that may essentially shift over to the Honors College include psychology, calculus, social science, humanities and history courses.

Honors is not a major, Finstuen noted. He said the typical honors student takes one honors course per semester.

Honors courses are scattered across campus and some courses, especially lab sciences, will not come to the Honors College.

“We’re essentially general education,” Finstuen said. “It’s like high school AP.”

Honors College by the numbers

The new Boise State University Honors College and Sawtooth Hall complex is home for 292 honors students and 332 freshmen.

The Honors College building is 98.2 percent dedicated to student living with just 4,300 square feet in one ground floor section dedicated to Honors College offices and classrooms.

The five-story living areas have nine community kitchens, two laundry rooms, 22 lounges/group study areas, 13 individual study areas and two outdoor courtyards, said Craig Wack, public relations coordinator, at EdR, which owns and manages the Honors College/Sawtooth Hall buildings.

The 14,720-square-foot dining hall has a maximum capacity of 306 but will have seating for 200 to 250 students.

The Honors College living quarters include 48 two-bedroom units and 15 four-bedroom units for freshman; 12  four-bedroom units and 28 two-bedroom units for sophomores and above, each with a kitchen and living area. The two-bedroom freshman units have options of one or two students per bedrooms.

Also living at the Honors College are eight resident assistants, a resident director and there is one faculty apartment with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The Honors College is the first Boise State building to be constructed and managed through a public-private partnership. Boise State partnered with EdR, a Memphis-based real estate investment trust that owns or manages 87 student living facilities at 54 universities in 26 states.

EdR fronted the $40 million construction costs and will own the structure for 50 years, at which time ownership will transfer to Boise State.

Student rent payment will cover construction costs, management and return on investment for EdR.

“(Boise State) doesn’t pay anything,” Wack said. “It’s an alignment of financial interests. In this case, Boise collects the rents and that revenue is split. Boise gets their share as ground rent and EdR gets its share to pay for construction, management and return on investment.”

EdR owns the building and Boise State owns the land underneath.