By Matthew Adkins
Community Park, the newest residential building located on the west side of the University of Louisville’s Belknap campus, is opening its doors for students as well as some Greek organizations this year. The apartment building is officially the new home to many Greek organizations, which has given them a chance to move a little closer to campus. “I think it’s affected them in a positive way,” said Frank Mianzo, the Assistant to the Vice President of Student Affairs. On the ground level of the building are five large community suites, which are the homes to several different Greek organizations including the Alpha Omega Pi, Kappa Delta, National Pan-Hellenic Council, Pi Beta Phi, Tau Kappa Epsilon, who have agreed to make the suites their homes for the new year. This new feature of the building has given the option to other organizations that were not on campus last year to move onto campus, either by moving into a vacant house on Greek Row, or moving into the community suites. “It’s pulled more (Greek) organizations to campus,” said Mianzo. Mianzo also feels that there will be more interacting between the Greek organizations as a result of this move into Community Park. Community Park welcomes non-Greek affiliated students into the newly finished apartments as well. The new building holds up to approximately 359 students, with each room in the living quarters upstairs being a duplicate of the rooms located just across Fourth Street in Kurz Hall.”I think the rooms are nice in two aspects; one, you and your roommate are given ample room to move about, and two, they provide a home-like atmosphere that the regular dorms cannot provide,” said current Community Park resident Devon Ison. According to Ison, he feels that he made the right choice moving into the new complex. “I chose Community Park because I knew it would be a place to live on campus that would feel more home-like, and would be more comfortable for me to study in. And I’d have a more pleasant college experience.” Corey Simmons, also a new resident of Community Park, is content as well with his choice. “I am very satisfied with the living conditions. Just like home,” said Simmons. Both residents feel that anyone moving into the new building will enjoy what it has to offer to students during this new school year. “I think most residents will like the size of the rooms of Community Park. I was surprised to see that they were this big. I knew they were going to be big, but not this big,” said Simmons. Ison feels that the new features of the building will also greatly benefit students during the school year.”I think the thing the other residents will like the most is the comfort of the rooms and the beds. It will make for better studying environments, and also better to sleep in, which can help (the student) perform better in class,” said Ison.Unity Place will also be affected since the new building has been finished. “We would like to do some work on the area in front of the fraternity houses along Unity Place, including adding plantings, and changes in the traffic flow in the area to reduce the traffic and improve parking,” said Mianzo. “We hope to be able to finalize this soon.”
