WINONA, Minn. – A proposed 340-bed dorm at Winona State fits into the university’s downsizing strategy to deal with shrinking enrollment. The dorm would replace the aging Lucas and Prentiss dorms on Huff Street. With the new dorm, the campus bed inventory would drop by 56. Also, the university already has jettisoned three student housing units at the old College of St. Teresa campus. The strategy with the new dorm is to attract new students who don’t cotton much to old-style dorms. The 21st century student doesn’t much like dorms with bleak central hallways, no air-conditioning, and end-of-hallway multi-stall toilets and gang showers. The new style is four-bedroom suites, like Winona State’s new Kirkland, Haake and East Lake dorms. The university’s idea is to build enrollment with attractive housing. The campus, however, still has old dorms – Sheehan, Conway and Morey-Shepard. And what will come of Lucas and Prentiss? Maintenance has been deferred for years. There’s been talk of razing them. Another possibility, campus planners say, is repurposing them for academic use.
Like cell blocks. Old-style dorms from the 1950s and 1960s, like Lucas and Prentiss at Winona State, are a hard sell in recruiting prospective students.