HOSTEL RENOVATIONS AT FORMAN CHRISTIAN COLLEGE 

Built in the 1940s, there are seven hostels on campus currently being used for male students. Baccalaureate students are housed in Shirazi and Ewing Halls. Intermediate students live in Velte, Newton, Kennedy and West Halls. Shirazi and West have been renovated, and Griswold is nearing completion. Once it is complete, students from Velte Hall will move into Griswold, leaving Velte unoccupied, next in line for renovation. 

On-campus hostel space is in great demand and is beneficial both to the students and the university. For students, living on campus provides great opportunity for them to see first-hand the diversity in faith and geographic regions represented at FCC. When not living on campus, students tend to cluster with other students they know from their home region, often living in substandard housing. Not having them live on campus also means a missed opportunity to actively mentor these students during their personal time, which we have found to be a very valuable part of their experience at FCC. Having more students on campus boosts the budget, helping Forman toward financial sustainability. 

We have created more housing by renovating and using existing space wisely. In each of the three hostels already renovated, beds have been increased from 94 to 141. This 50% increase was accomplished by reassigning space previously used for other purposes, remodeling them into student rooms, and by turning some larger rooms from singles to doubles. 

These nearly 75 year-old hostels have served the campus well, but the brutal Lahore weather and time have worn them down. Included in these renovations are replacing all plumbing and electrical, completely rebuilding all bathrooms, new subfloors topped by terrazzo tiles, closets and shelves installed in the student rooms, doors and windows either replaced or refurbished, and sandblasting and repointing the outside of the building.