Xochilt Garcia
Editor in Chief
Last fall, 15 students from Texas A&M University-San Antonio began their school year by spending two months in a hotel because there was no room at Esperanza Hall, the university’s first and only residence building at the time. But with the opening of Estrella Hall this fall, students will not need to find refuge off-campus anymore.
In fact, A&M-San Antonio’s residence halls still have 20-22 open beds left as of Aug. 21, said Reba Sims, the director of housing for the school.
“Historically we have had issues being at capacity and having to turn people away or putting them in alternative housing,” Sims said at a grand opening event and tour of the new hall Aug. 21. “This time we have a little bit extra, which is great.”
But more than having some wiggle room, Sims said the new residence hall means more academic access for students on the Southside.
“For me the importance is continuing to grow; continuing to keep the students’ needs and students’ voice at the forefront. There’s some things we can do, there’s some things we can’t do–that’s how life is,” Sims said. “It’s making sure that there’s access, because right now we’re in a housing desert when it comes to students.”
University President Hector Salvador Ochoa gave a few remarks at the event.
“This place is like the Hilton; it is beautiful,” Ochoa said. “While this residence hall doesn’t have a rec room or other things, the rooms are bigger and the bathrooms are much nicer.”
Ochoa said he loved the view of the campus from the second- and third-story windows in the study halls at the dorm.
The A&M System board of regents is set to tour the new $32.5 million building Aug. 22. The new hall allows A&M-San Antonio to now offer 750 student beds. According to a university press release, the hall is four stories high, has a canteen and a lounge/study space that “reflects A&M-San Antonio’s commitment to student growth and development, helping make the university more accessible to those outside the region.”
Ochoa said nearly 500 students have settled into both residence halls during Move-In-Weekend Aug. 17-19. The first day of classes is Aug. 26.
Aug. 21 marked a record high temperature of 106: industrial fans blew in the lobby of Estrella Hall as university officials spoke for the grand opening and attendants helped themselves to iced lemonade and water. As school districts have resumed classes around San Antonio, some campuses have struggled to keep the summer heat out of their classrooms due to power and air conditioning failures. Though it is not currently installed, Estrella Hall will have a generator to countermeasure power and AC outages, Sims said. Esperanza Hall does not have a generator but does have a contract with a third party to provide generators in the case of outages.
Currently, many students registered at A&M-San Antonio come from outside of the greater San Antonio area, including the Dallas-Fort Worth region, Houston and the Southern Texas valley region.
“We even have some from out of state,” Sims said.
While first-year students living outside of a 50-mile radius are required to live in the dorms for their first two semesters, not all residents at the hall are from out of town: history freshman Declan Harrison said he moved into Estrella Hall Aug. 17, and he’s a San Antonio local.
“I love it,” Harrison said of the new hall, where residents were freely walking in and out of by using key fobs.
Harrison shares a room with two other students and said he’s enjoyed getting to know the A&M-San Antonio community, even if Estrella Hall is a little quieter and less lively compared to Esperanza Hall.
“I like getting to know everybody.”
The community aspect of a student residence hall is also significant to Sims, who stressed the importance of using the term “residence hall” instead of “dormitory.” Sims likened the word “dorm” to simple sleeping quarters or military barracks.
“Kids in beds,” Sims said. “But when it comes to a residence hall, you have to think about the student holistically and what’s happening in that space: they’re making friends, they’re programming, they’re doing conflict-resolution.”
Sims said residence halls cover a much broader scope than a simple four walls for someone to sleep in.
Housing costs also increased $100, Sims said. The director said the cost for living at Esperanza Hall last spring was $4,500, but is now $4,600. There are also new criteria to live at the dorms, Sims said.
New and returning students must be enrolled full-time at A&M-San Antonio, and returning students must have a minimum grade point average of 2.0 or “satisfactory academic progress in the general sense,” Sims said.
Estrella Hall is only one of A&M-San Antonio’s newest developments. The university began construction of a student rec center in February, and is planning to start construction on an on-campus childcare building in January of 2025. The school is also expecting to open a new public health and education building in the spring of 2026.
“This is Residence Hall 2,” Ochoa said at the opening event of Estrella Hall. “And I’m already starting to plan Residence Hall 3.”
