On Tuesday afternoon, standing roughly where the Cobb Residential Community’s basketball courts were two months prior, several UNC dignitaries pushed some Carolina-blue shovels into a pile of dirt and celebrated the start of construction on the university’s first new on-campus dorms in two decades.
Chancellor Lee Roberts, Chair of the Board of Trustees Malcolm Turner, leaders of Carolina Housing and members of Roberts’ administration gathered for the groundbreaking ceremony for Jackson Residence Hall and another residence hall yet to be named.
“How do we expand access to this remarkable institution,” Roberts asked as part of his comments to the crowd. “We do that, in part, by increasing our enrollment. We have 1,000 more students here than we did two years ago… and that’s the context in which we’re breaking ground here, the first new dormitory to be built in the historic part here of campus in a generation.”
Roberts and university leaders are aiming to grow Carolina’s undergraduate enrollment, with the goal of adding at least 5,000 more students to its enrollment base by 2034. The Board of Trustees indicated in its September 2026 meeting it wants to be even more ambitious, with the goal of targeting “between 4,750 and 5,000” new students the enrollment base by next fall. The chancellor and members of his administration say the effort is in part to match North Carolina’s growing population and ensure its families can have a chance to attend the school, while a wider enrollment base also offers more revenue-generation through tuition and fees.
As a result, UNC is looking to update its housing portfolio. Projects like replacing Parker and Teague Residence Halls will add density to a main corridor, while the Carolina North campus aims to add thousands of potential units for students and staff. But both are years in the future — leading to the identification of the former admissions building and Cobb Residential Community as a prime spot for adding new construction.
The aerial view of the site plan for UNC’s two new residence halls in the Cobb Residential Community. (Photo via UNC Facilities Services.)
Additionally, Carolina Housing Executive Director Allan Blattner told Chapelboro, it allows the university to add housing with current features and prevents add-on renovations to decades-old dorms to accommodate for modern standards — like accessibility.
“A whole group of students that I think we’ve underserved for a long time – not just at Carolina, but other places – is our students with mobility challenges,” he told Chapelboro. “Some of our folks for whom [the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act] is a really important milestone in this campus’ history. And finally, these new buildings will give us the opportunity…not to correct old problems, but to start with a blank tapestry and say, ‘Let’s develop what’s right for all of our students so they can all access the buildings.'”
The unnamed eastern residence hall will be roughly where the previous Jackson Hall stood, partially fronting Country Club Road and neighboring Cobb Residence Hall. The new Jackson Hall — which UNC said is a continued namesake of Blyden and Roberta Jackson — will sit to the west, between Everett Hall, Joyner Hall and the Cobb Parking Deck. The positioning should make it a key gathering spot, Blattner said, with plans to add a package center, several courtyards and different outdoor gathering spaces.
“North campus is where it’s at — just talk to students, they measure everything from how far [it is] from Franklin Street and how far [it is] from The Pit,” said the Carolina Housing director. “So, this puts them right in the heart of the action. It lets a new set of buildings come into this neighborhood and really gives it an anchor. We’re going to put our package center right here in the middle of everything… it’s those service amenities that are so important [and] those kinds of anchors new buildings allow us to provide to students because they weren’t in the vision when they built Old East way back when.”
With a target goal of having the two new residence halls open to students for start of the 2028-29 academic year, current UNC students living in the Cobb Residential Community will be neighbors to the large construction site for the next few semesters. Blattner said the university’s design and construction partners are planning on sending bi-weekly and as-needed newsletter alerts to the residence halls and residents to share updates. He also said there’s been a concerted effort to warn students before they select the dorms and move in about the project, adding that Carolina Housing is open to hearing suggestions for minimizing disruptions as construction picks up.
Audra Farrar, the Residence Hall Association President for Carolina, said in her remarks at the ceremony she hopes the university remembers and recognizes the students “currently facing the consequences of growing enrollment before the proper infrastructure is in place to manage it.” But Farrar also said she sees Jackson Hall and its partnering addition as “a new era of Carolina.”
“The residence halls here at Carolina are more than just buildings, they truly are the heart of campus,” said the UNC senior. “They’re a home to all undergraduate students during their time here, a safe place during their Carolina journey… When I imagine these two new residence halls, I don’t just see the two buildings or the drawn-up plans. I see generations of future Tar Heels standing right here, on this very ground, making these buildings their homes, meeting new people, creating lasting memories, and finding community.”
In an economy where construction costs create more challenges than normal and delays feel inevitable, Roberts said it it a high priority for UNC and its contractors to ensure the project is ready for the fall of 2028.
“We’re going to move this construction ahead as we possibly can, and move as quickly as we possible can,” the chancellor said, “to get these beds ready…so that more students can come to Carolina.”
Featured photo by Chapel Hill Media Group.
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