Adam Ruddle began his college journey last month by moving into a new dorm at Ferris State University.
But Stadium Hall is not a typical dorm. It was built on the edge of the north end zone of Ferris’ football stadium, so Ruddle can see the practices of the football team, cheer squad and band runners on the track. He and his three roommates also can watch from the privacy of their room the college’s four-time NCAA Division II national championship team, which competed in its 2026 home opener on Friday night.
“It’s awesome,” said Ruddle, a Mackinac Island resident. “It’s a crazy view. It’s really, really cool.”
Ferris’ new $38 million Stadium Hall is among several new residence halls Michigan colleges recently opened to modernize housing and attract students in an era of fierce competition for a shrinking number of college-bound high school graduates.
From Western Michigan University’s new freshmen dorm featuring mass timber and mostly single rooms to Eastern Michigan University’s new on-campus apartments and renovations in recent years, colleges are spending tens of millions of dollars to tear down aging dorms and replace them with modern student housing.
