CLU to Dedicate Residence Hall Today

During her first three years at Cal Lutheran University, the closest Jordana Segal had ever come to a kitchen was at home in Simi Valley.

Segal lived in dormitories with one central kitchen, so she didn’t cook. But that changed two weeks ago when she moved into the Apartments, CLU’s new $6-million residence hall. Now she spends nearly every morning fixing breakfast in her own kitchen before class.

“I’ve waited a long time for this,” said the 21-year-old psychology major, who shares one of the dorm’s 30 two-bedroom suites with three other girls. “I’m so excited that we’re the first ones to get this.”

The Apartments, which will probably get a new name when a major benefactor comes forward, is the first part of CLU’s master expansion plan. The plan, expected to cost $30 million to $50 million, will include several new facilities and take about 20 years to complete, said Lynda Paige Fulford, a university spokeswoman.

CLU will hold a dedication ceremony for the residence hall at 4:30 p.m. today in its courtyard, at Luther Avenue and Campus Drive.

The Apartments were the first step in the plan, because of the university’s overcrowding problems. Instead of the 800 to 850 students CLU can house on campus, more than 900 have been living on the campus. At times, five students were crammed into dorm suites made for four, Fulford said.

“This is a source of pride for the students as well as faculty and staff,” Fulford said. “We’re getting to see part of the development and improvements on campus.”

For Segal and others, they’re getting to live it. The Apartments, occupied by upperclassmen because they get to pick first in the school’s housing lottery, reminds junior Angela Namba of her freshman year.

“It’s kind of like the same camaraderie when we first came in because we are all living next to each other again,” said Namba, 21, of Las Vegas.

For about the first six weeks of school, students who planned to live in the Apartments were housed by CLU in area apartments, the Thousand Oaks Inn, on-campus houses or on-campus dorms until the housing was close to completion. Most students are now settled in, and only five suites remain unfinished. The residence hall is expected to be completed within the next month, Fulford said.

Travis Johnson, a 22-year-old senior and one of the first to move into the new dorm, already has his living room set up with a stereo, two video game systems and three televisions.

“It’s fun on Sundays when there’s a lot of football on,” he said.