THE University of the West Indies yesterday officially opened an 800-room hall of residence, named in honour of its vice-chancellor, Rex Nettleford.

The new $700-million hall, work on which began in April of 2001, consists of eight three-storey clusters with each cluster enclosing a central quadrangle and comprising 12 households.

According to Professor Elsa Rhynie, pro vice-chancellor at the university, $564 million of the construction cost of the new hall was funded by the National Housing Trust.

Describing the hall as an “attractive, striking and impressive mini village”, Professor Leo-Rhynie said its construction was evidence of the “student centredness” of the university’s administrators.

“It’s a wonderful legacy of partnership among government and the private sector,” she added.

According to the pro vice-chancellor, applications for accommodation were oversubscribed each year, and the university was left with a deficit of more than 50 per cent of applications it received for campus housing in 1998/99.

Students, she said, began occupying Cluster 1 of the hall since March of this year. However, full occupancy was registered when it served as the official ‘Athletes’ Village’ for the nearly 2,000 local and overseas athletes who participated in the World Junior Games held in Kingston last July.

One half cluster at the new hall is two storeys high and consists of four households. Eight students in single rooms will share a household, which has bathrooms, and a living area with sitting, dining and cooking facilities. Each cluster also has studio accommodation for two resident advisors — 17 overall. A student services manager’s house, an operations manager’s house and central facilities — offices, recreation rooms, a computer room, a large meeting area, and laundry facilities complete the complex.

The students’ rooms are furnished with custom-built furniture, made and installed by University Loft Company of Indiana and each household is equipped with appliances supplied by Appliance Traders Limited and Kingston Industrial Agencies.

“Today is a special celebration for Professor Nettleford who has supported the project throughout without even realising that it was to be named after him,” said Professor, Leo-Rhynie.

“It is being named in his honour for his contribution to the university which he has been a part of for the last 50 years,” she said.

“During these years he has been a moving force, a creative stimulus, and always an advocate for the students. We have come around to honour one of our own for his stellar contributions made to the development of the region. It is with great pride and pleasure that we as a community celebrate our own very special person and his stellar contribution by making this hall the Rex Nettleford Hall,” she added.

Prime Minister P J Patterson, who opened the facility, said that naming the hall after Nettleford was a “great source of pride” to fellow alumni, including himself.

“…And I am sure that those who occupy these hallowed walls would be mindful of the fine example of quality of leadership that you set, a man who truly reflects the renaissance spirit,and that Nettleford Hall would produce people of that quality, able to continue in that fine tradition,” the prime minister added.

“To the king I say you now have a hall of your own.”

In his reply, Professor Nettleford said the hall is not only in his honour but the nearly 55,000 graduates who “had the privilege to pass through the halls” of the university and eventually went out in the working world “to make sense”.