KSU opens new $37M dorm

Students entering Kennesaw State University have something to be excited about. The university is adding 508 beds to its on-campus housing, bringing the school’s total housing stock to around 6,000 beds.

Named the Summit, KSU held a ribbon cutting on Friday morning for the new five-story dorm, located on Marietta Drive on the campus’ south side. The $37 million, 105,000-square-foot facility will house freshman students, who will start moving in on Wednesday.

Pointing to the growth of the university, President Kathy Schwaig said the new dorm was needed to keep pace. KSU had about 43,000 students as of last fall, which is the third-largest enrollment in the state behind Georgia State and Georgia Tech.

Schwaig described living on campus as a key element of the college experience. Over two decades, the university has gone from being a commuter school to offering thousands of students the chance to do so. 

“When you’re leaving your family and you’re leaving your home where you’ve been for a number of years and you come into a new experience in college, and you have a beautiful place to move into, it can make such a huge difference,” Schwaig said. “And obviously, the friendships and the connections and the people that you meet during this time are such an extraordinary experience,” said Schwaig.

“We care about you, we want you to have a safe, beautiful place to live, we want you to be able to connect with one another,” Schwaig said of the students. “We want you to be able to experience this educational time in your life, this college time in your life, in a very exciting and fun way. And so I know that it’s not just a physical space, it’s a space of memories and a space of experience.”