When it opens next year, Southeast Community College’s first residence hall at its Lincoln campus will provide housing for up to 250 students.

Growing demand for on-campus living led the SCC Board of Governors to approve the $26.5 million project last October. But with the opening of the new dormitory still months away, SCC is giving some students the chance to get a head start in experiencing on-campus living.

Beginning this fall, SCC students enrolled full-time at the Lincoln campus and who have earned at least 15 credit hours can apply to live in suite- and townhouse-style residences at Nebraska Wesleyan University.

The agreement — which echoes a similar arrangement from four decades ago — came about as the liberal arts university in northeast Lincoln realized it had space to fill and the community college located at 8800 O St. said it had students wanting to fill it.

Brandi Sestak, NWU’s assistant dean for student success and residential education, said the numbers of residents on campus can fluctuate as some students study abroad, choose to commute, or as class sizes change.

SCC students who want an “on-campus, immersive” experience will be able to live in suite-style housing for $3,684 per semester, or in a townhouse-style residence for $4,509 per semester.

Those students will also be required to purchase a meal plan for $1,960 per semester, which provides 12 meals per week, and will be charged a $90 fee to have access to wireless internet, the Wesleyan library, campus recreation center, and a mailbox.

Living on the Wesleyan campus will come with some perks for SCC students.

In addition to having an ID card that gains them free entry into home athletic and theater events, SCC students will be able to take part in other campus activities.

“We’re really, really excited to welcome SCC students into our residential communities,” Sestak said. “We believe it will make our already strong communities even more vibrant.”

Opening space in the residence halls for students from another college or university might be uncommon, but it’s not without precedent.

Wesleyan previously opened its doors to SCC students beginning in 1979 after the Lincoln campus opened, and allowed those students to continue living in its dormitories well into the 1980s.

Students from both schools were allowed to room together and take part in student activities while also having access to campus amenities, according to a 1983 story in The Lincoln Star.

Sestak said while NWU anticipates the partnership for the 2022-23 school year will be temporary, the university will continue to assess if it can help SCC meet needs and keep its residence halls full.

NWU and SCC have partnered in other ways, too.

The Pathways Partnership, announced in 2018, provides an annual $20,000 scholarship to SCC students who want to transfer to NWU to continue their education.

"We hope this agreement strengthens that partnership," Sestak said.