The Office of Residence Life is setting in motion the first part of a project that will result in a major overhaul of Marquette's residence halls.

Starting Wednesday night, 72 students will have the opportunity to voice their concerns and make suggestions about residence hall life through randomly selected focus groups with consultants from housing planning firm Brailsford and Dunlavey, according to Jim McMahon, dean of residence life.

The project started after approximately 30 students had to live in the Hilton Milwaukee City Center hotel, 509 W. Wisconsin Ave., last school year as a result of a lack of space in the university's residence halls, McMahon said.

"We put together a planning team to look at a way to ensure that we never had to house freshmen and sophomores in an off-campus location ever again," he said.

A major result of that team's collaboration was the conversion of Abbottsford Residence Hall — formerly Abbottsford Apartments — from graduate housing to a strictly freshman residence hall, which will be completed next summer.

Lori Vozari, Abbottsford hall director, was pleased with the decision to convert the building.

"Marquette needs housing for freshmen," she said. "It will be nice not to have small pockets of freshmen living in other dorms."

The Abbottsford conversion will also alleviate the absence of South Hall as freshman housing next year. The building, which houses 90 men, is currently at the end of a three-year lease that will not be renewed, McMahon said.

After these changes were made, McMahon said the committee decided to stay together to "look at long-range needs" such as reconfiguring space and replacing furniture, wiring and plumbing. Brailsford and Dunlavey was brought in to figure out what changes need to be made, he said.

"They'll do facility analysis to look at the kind of space students live in to see if that's appropriate," McMahon said.

The six focus groups each feature a specific cross-section of Marquette's student body: Freshmen, sophomores, upperclassmen in university housing, upperclassmen in off-campus housing, graduate students and resident assistants. McMahon said these were a vital part of the long-range plan.

"If we don't get feedback, the results won't be as well-founded without significant student input," he said.

Brailsford and Dunlavey will compile students' comments and reactions from Wednesday night for its research. From this feedback, the Office of Residence Life will create a Web-based survey that will be sent to all students at the start of the spring semester, McMahon said.

The final plan is due May 6, 2006.

The housing team will review the recommendations in the report and "see what the next steps are," said the Rev. Andy Thon, vice president for student affairs and chairperson of the housing planning group.

"The key is what can we do to improve the quality of life in the residence halls," Thon said. "That's an important part of life here at Marquette."