EXHIBITS

Life on College Hill: University Housing 

Student housing has been a recurrent problem at USU. Although a women’s dormitory was among the earliest college buildings, most students found room and board with local, downtown residents. Particularly pronounced as WWII veterans returned after 1946, the housing shortage required erecting military surplus buildings to house married students. The campus employed a number of resourceful ideas to meet student housing needs, endeavoring to accommodate an ever-growing university population. 

SCAUSUA-0388a.jpg
Student family and their trailer home on the USAC campus, 1940s
(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, USU Historical Photo-board Collection, photo no. USU-A0388a)

Housing Crisis (1946–1960s) 

The college continued using the temporary military structures moved to campus during WWII for housing and classrooms. To help relieve the housing crisis for thousands of returning veterans and their families, the university purchased trailer homes, Quonset huts, and tropical bungalows, which remained in service until construction of Aggie Village during the 1960s. The Field House provided bunk beds for single men while Lund Hall housed twice as many women students as originally designed. The last remaining Quonset hut on campus now houses Utah Public Radio.