For the first time in 64 years, Fresno State is building a new dormitory complex. 

The 83,000 square-foot apartment-style building has a wing specifically built to better accommodate parent scholars, and will only be available to them and upperclassmen starting in Fall 2026.

The full academic year rate for a double is $10,634, a small single is $11,369 and a studio is $12,343. Applications for the new housing option opened on Feb. 2.

“They’re a little bit more expensive than our current stock because they come with full kitchens and living rooms,” Boele said. “Because of the full kitchen, they could choose to have a meal plan if they would like to, but they don’t have to.”

The project cost $59 million, with $33 million being paid with a grant through the state for affordable housing. The rest of it is auxiliary funding, according to Nicole Lane, executive director of auxiliary services.

“We’re self-supporting,” Lane said. “Part of that would be rents that are collected through student housing. We try to be as financially prudent as possible — we’ve been saving for this with our reserves.”

The majority of the first-year residents will be upperclassmen students, and only a few families will be living there. They will grow the program over time, according to Erin Boele, director of housing at Fresno State. 

“We’ve adapted everything in the building to be where parents and children can enjoy the building, just like our students can,” Boele said.

The apartments that they have set aside for parent scholars will be set on top of each other in their own space. They will have room for up to three kids and a partner, and there will be a playground, a new bike bank, a basketball court and a fire pit.

“They’re not only going to school, which can be a challenge in and of itself, but they’re raising kids on top of that,” said Melissa Norris, health educator at the Student Health and Counseling Center. “They’re kind of doing two really impossible things all at the exact same time, and many times they’re also juggling work and other responsibilities.” 

Norris also works with parent scholars on campus to support them with the available resources, which include free diapers, on-campus childcare, priority registration and events and programming that encourage their parent scholars to bring their children onto campus.

“Some of our parent scholars actually commute more than a couple of hours to come to Fresno State,” Norris said. “I think being able to have on-campus housing for parent scholars allows them to eliminate the extra layer of having to commute to campus and releases the burden of gas costs and things like that.”

Norris said that one in every five college students has a child, and at Fresno State, there are approximately 2,000 parent scholars.

In a survey done by Norris of around 420 parent scholars at Fresno State, only 59% said that they were in “very stable” housing. An additional 88.3% said that they were unaware of the future family housing units.

“We’re working with the parent scholars program on campus to advertise out to our parent students,” Boele said. “So it’s really a matter of building that interest.” 

Norris said that this development is meant to show Fresno State’s commitment to celebrating and acknowledging the parent scholars on campus.

“The more we create a space where people want to come to Fresno State when they’re raising kids at the same time, too, that’s ultimately my goal at the end of the day,” Norris said.

For regular students, the building will have 228 beds. Most of the rooms are two-bedroom doubles, with a few singles spread throughout the building. Internet, cable, electricity and furniture will all be included.

In the existing dorms on campus, students have mixed reviews about their experiences living there.

Serena Lopez, a freshman who lives in the dorms, said that there isn’t a washing machine in her building, so they have to go to the building next door. But, she said that she’s closer to the bus stop, so they are still nice.

Lopez said that with rising costs of rent and tuition, she is unsure if she will try to move there once she qualifies.

“I really don’t have any complaints,” said Angela Rosa, a sophomore who lives in the dorms. “I’ve liked it so far. I’ve heard a lot of people were on waitlists and stuff for housing, so I feel like it’s good that they’re building more places to live for students.”

Rosa said that she wouldn’t consider moving to a new room, since she likes her double suite with her roommate.

Alexander Brown, a sophomore who lives in the dorms, is intrigued, but not impressed.

“For me personally in Graves, it’s all right,” Brown said. “But I know of other people who live in the suites, for example, who have substantial mold problems. And I would say that needs to be addressed before building something new.” 

Brown said that he would be interested in living in the new dorms next fall if the pricing was right, but after hearing about the full kitchen, he said that he would be significantly more interested.

The project has stayed under budget and on schedule since it broke ground in November 2024. Quiring serves as the general contractor for the project.

“Our students really just want to have a safe space on campus,” Boele said. “They want to have a place where they feel comfortable in the community. So it’s not necessarily the building, it’s the community and the structure around it.”