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At the end of last year, officials at the University of Massachusetts-Boston proposed a plan to build their first-ever dormitories on campus in Dorchester.

The 25-year plan, proposed to the University’s Board of Trustees, would spend an estimated $750 million over the next 10 years to build two dorms for about 1,000 students, according to a December 2007 article in The Boston Globe.

The first phase of the plan also includes the construction of three academic buildings and a 1,000 space above-ground parking garage to replace one that was recently shut down and declared to be unsafe.

UMass Boston is currently the only university in the UMass system without dorm rooms on campus.

“I don’t think I’d ever go to a school that didn’t have dorms,” said UMass Amherst junior Rachel Beaulieu. “Living in a dorm is part of the college experience that I wouldn’t want to miss out on.”

Many supporters of the proposal agreed that it would create more unity among students, as well as give the school a much-needed makeover. Most of the buildings on the Boston campus – built in the early 1970s – are falling apart.

“It will change the whole culture of the campus,” Chancellor J. Keith Motley said in an interview with The Boston Globe. “It will create a much more open and vibrant community.”

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who originally opposed a similar plan presented in 2003, is supporting the current plan based on the movement UMass officials have made to accommodate the surrounding neighborhoods’ requests.

Those that oppose the building of dorms on campus believe that it will forever change the dynamic of the surrounding neighborhoods.

“They have an agreement with the community that it would be a commuter college and that there would be no dorms,” said member of Columbia Savin-Hill Civic Association, Joe Chaissin. “They will turn family restaurants into college bars.”

Despite some of the complaints, UMass Boston plans to move ahead with the first phase of construction. To fund the project, the University looks to increase enrollment, and is also receiving $381 million from the $2.9 billion budget that was approved by the UMass system last September.

Ashley Coulombe can be reached at [email protected]