Kate KimberlinThe department of student housing released a six-year strategic plan detailing improvements that the university plans to make to residence halls on campus. The plan outlines six goals, ranging from buildings improvements to fostering better on-campus living communities.
The goals include enhancing the student experience through various “learning opportunities” and the reevaluation of the buildings and the department itself.
Student Housing Director John Yaun said the plan will serve as a roadmap for the department for the next six years.
“The goals of this process were to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the department in order to identify the key issues Student Housing needed to be thinking about in meeting the needs of students at the University of Mississippi,” Yaun said.
The plan includes outcomes that will be completed as soon as this year and as ongoing as 2026. Many aspects — including mold testing each summer in Crosby, Martin and Stockard halls — will occur annually. Yaun said that the department is beginning to focus on some outcomes outlined in the plan.
“We will be focusing on what is outlined in this Strategic Plan, including improvements to existing residence halls and apartments, reaching out to current first-year students about living on campus another year, furthering the success of our Residential Colleges, and developing strategies to infuse diversity and inclusion into all areas of the Department,” Yaun said.
The plan also provided an opportunity and framework to develop a long-term vision for making campus housing a home for students, a place where students can succeed academically and be active, engaged members of the university community, according to Yaun.
