The Hassayampa Academic Village

Imagine you are searching for a new place to live. What would you search for? Perhaps the house is the main attraction. How about the Country Club benefits? Or, maybe the quality of the community is more important? Home-searching is a very intricate process and cannot be taken lightly. It takes weeks, months, even years in some cases to find the perfect house for your situation. The same applies for on-campus housing. Although sometimes a new student is assigned to a dorm based on their major or other requirements, there are still situations where a request for a specific dorm will be accepted. In those cases, prospective students should explore their options regarding where they should live. For example, questions such as: “How close are the classes? What is the community like? Are the dorms super busy at night? Where can I find food?” ought to be seriously considered. The task of committing to campus life seems tedious, and seeing all the add-ons and perks to living in Hassy may raise the question if all these are even beneficial or helpful to residents; however, through this project I wish to provide answers to some of those questions and jumpstart your decision to on-campus living.

The Hassayampa Academic Village is one of the best on-campus housing options based on its location in respect to classes, the ease of acquiring any college student’s needs and also in academics as well. Firstly, Hassy is roughly a ten minute walk to most classes and that time is cut in half when using faster transportation like a long board or bike. As the day goes on, though, there usually is a high volume of pedestrians and using a bike or board would only cause problems.

In the second point, there are a variety of food options in which students can grab a decent meal from either a meal plan or a few M&Gs. The Hassayampa Dining Hall, with hours of 7am-9pm on weekdays, offers breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as a plethora of cereals, salads, fresh fruits and vegetables, sodas and iced teas. Because it is buffet styled, students can grab as many entrees as they please with only one card swipe as they enter the cafeteria. However, a small drawback is that the servers are pretty stingy with the bacon and sausage, meaning multiple return trips are required. Nonetheless unlimited food within 100 feet of your room is always a best seller for college students.

Also conveniently located in close proximity to the Hassy Mesquite dorm is the POD (Provisions on Demand) Market which contains a Subway and many other food choices ranging from sour patch sweets to meals on the go and energy drinks of all kinds. It is safe to say students are well taken care of when focusing on both food and location, however, what does Hassy do to promote the academic aspect of college? After all, is that not the reason to attend ASU?

Within the Hassayampa building, there are two tutoring centers which usually run from 1pm-11pm on weekdays and are always free of charge. So, whenever there is a quick question on a homework problem or you simply cannot understand a concept, stop by at either the Creative Writing Center on the Second Floor or the Learning Resource Center found just past the lobby. In the Resource Center, tutoring is available in math, statistics, economics and also a number of computer/online courses and the staff is predominately Post-Graduate students that are familiar with these courses. For the most part they are very helpful, but I would not depend on them to teach you the entire course.

As a current resident to HAV, I have noticed the benefits of living fairly close to classes, having a convenience store and cafeteria right next door, and being able to go to tutoring for help pretty much whenever I need it. I feel confident that my classwork and homework will be completed on time without having too much pressure or stress because I can get help simply by walking down a few flights of stairs. Eating enough food is not a big worry since I have a few different options in very close proximity. There are only a few changes I would suggest in the surrounding services offered like the substitution option at the Dining Hall or having more counters at the P.O.D., but other than those small complaints I feel fortunate enough to be a resident at Hassy. All in all, the Hassayampa Academic Village has taken care of my basic needs as well as provided a fun community to spend time with new friends.



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