WILBERFORCE, Ohio — Ohio’s oldest private historically Black university is making major changes to its campus while students are out. It’s expanding as it faces a growing demand for student housing.
After 170 years of history, you have to take a tour to see the future of Ohio’s oldest HBCU.
In the next five years, Wilberforce University’s entire footprint is expected to get bigger, but that expansion comes as the university faces another housing challenge.
For years, some students were living in dorms leased from neighboring HBCU, Central State University, but that’s about to end.
“They won’t have any place at Central State. They’re demolishing the building that we rented, and we’ve already got new places for our students,” said Wilberforce University President Vann Newkirk.
That’s why Wilberforce is working on both new dorms and now modular housing units for next school year.
The university’s president said those will be able to hold about 40 new students but it’s also going to cost students.
“Probably going to be a little bit more expensive. The reason being they offer more in each of the residential halls than our common residential halls. They don’t have common washrooms, they have their own washing facilities,” said Newkirk.
Down the line, he said they’re also planning to demolish and rebuild old dorms that still hold the school spirit store inside.
And he said they’re still moving forward with plans for a football stadium he told us about before. A big change from what the historical campus used to look like, but one that leaders say leaves room for growth.
