San Saba Hall, UTSA’s newest on-campus housing facility, will be opening for the Fall 2013 semester. Located near the Recreation Center, Roadrunner Café and University Center, the new residence hall will accommodate 618 students upon opening.

Currently, students are served by four on-campus housing complexes: Chisholm Hall, University Oaks, Chaparral Village and Laurel Village, which in total account for 3,643 beds.

Like Laurel Village and Chaparral Village, San Saba Hall will be operated by UTSA’s Department of Housing and Residence Life; University Oaks and Chisholm Hall are both operated by Campus Living Villages, an outside company operating under contract.

San Saba Hall is indirectly a product of UTSA’s Master Plan, long-term guidelines for construction projects, which the university began researching in 2007. Some of these projects such as the North Paseo Building have already been completed, but San Saba Hall is the first housing project to be tackled since the Master Plan was published.

According to the Master Plan, UTSA has expressed a goal of housing 20 percent of students on campus, “which would have required and additional 2,000 beds in Fall 2007 and another 1,000 beds for projected enrollment by Fall 2017.” The Master Plan also noted that building a sense of community is a chief concern for housing, and that doing so is difficult at University Oaks and Chaparral and Laurel Villages.

A unique capacity of the new residence hall will be its special interest communities. According to UTSA Today, three communities will be located in the San Saba’s south tower, each catering to a specific niche of students. The Engineering Living Learning Community will be able to participate in “field trips to various engineering locations, peer mentoring and engineering advising once each semester.” Residents on the Leadership and Service Lifestyle floor will have opportunities to “participate in a variety of activities and events utilizing the components of the SLC mission statement: education, engagement and experience, which will allow students to evolve as globally aware leaders.” The Honors College and Terry Scholar Community will “assist with interdisciplinary seminars that bring together advanced students from diverse disciplines.”

For more information regarding San Saba Hall or to apply for housing, visit the UTSA Housing website.