SIOUX CITY | When he was an undergraduate at Morningside College in 2005, Steele Welcher remembered sharing a bedroom and living without air conditioning in a cramped dormitory.
"Our dorm was pretty old and space was pretty tight," he said, laughing at the memory. "That was what college life was like for most students back then."
That may not be the case anymore. At least, it isn't at Prairie Place, a new 68,9000 square-foot residential hall on the campus of Western Iowa Tech Community College.
Prairie Place welcomed its first residents at the start of the 2014 - 2015 school year.
"This is nothing like the dorms I've lived in," Welcher, now a WIT residential manager, said while giving a tour of the facilities. "Everything here is new and modern."
Situated on the eastern side of WIT's 200-acre camp next to its Loess Hills Arboretum and Nature Trail, Prairie Hills offers suite-style dorms that are four-bedroom, two-bathroom units, which provide students with their own furnished rooms and a common space.
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 "Now, students can have their own bedroom and share a bathroom with just one other person," said Luke Vanderzyden, Prairie Place's housing supervisor.
In place of institutional flooring, Prairie Place has ceramic tiles that mimic the look of wood planks, an element that immediately caught the eye of housing supervisor Chatara Mabry.
"The flooring is heavy-duty enough to withstand wear and tear plus they're attractive," she said. "I think it really ties in with the dorm's proximity to the nature trail."
Containing 49 suites, Prairie Place will be able to house 180 students, which will bring WIT's on-campus population to a total of nearly 550 students.
Like the campus' Sun Ridge Court and Bur Oak Suite residential dorms, Prairie Place will also include study areas, computer labs with printers, cable television, wireless Internet, laundry facilities, utilities, air conditioning, free parking and full-time campus security.
Unique to Prairie Place will be two communal kitchens for students.
"While students will still have meal plans for the college's Outlook Cafe, the communal kitchen is a great place to make a quick snack," Welcher said.
Yet if students want to cook, they'll need food. This is why Prairie Place will also feature a small convenience store with soft drinks, food and supplies like soap and laundry detergent.
"Some of our students have no transportation," Vanderzyden said. "I'm sure the convenience store will be a great asset for them."
Walking outside a communal deck that offered a picturesque view of the Loess Hills Nature Trail, Mabry said students have come to expect such perks from dorm life.
"I think they want the conveniences of home, even when they're off at school," she said.
That's quite a change for Welcher, who remembered his dormitory experience differently.
"I remember walls that were made of cement blocks and having little or no privacy," he said with a shrug. "That certainly isn't the case here at Prairie Place."
