Western added the final pieces to its collection of Colonial Courts properties Friday.

The Board of Regents approved the purchase of three apartment buildings in Colonial Courts, which has served as a student community.

Western has been buying properties located on Normal Drive across from Southwest Hall for two years.

The buildings will become part of a village for visiting scholars and international students, which university officials hope will be completed by Spring 2011, Provost Barbara Burch said.

Since 2000, the number of visiting scholars has increased from 10 to more than 50 per year, she said.

Burch said that, though Western officials would like to have more visiting scholars, they aren’t using the housing to attract more of them. Officials are trying to accommodate scholars already coming to Western, she said.

When Western faculty go abroad, they’re always treated well, and it’s important to reciprocate when faculty visits Western, she said.

Visiting faculty can stay anywhere from a few days to an entire semester or year, she said.

Currently, there aren’t enough accommodations close to campus for all of Western’s visiting scholars, Burch said.

Many houses used for that purpose were torn down to make room for the new College of Education building and the Adams-Whitaker Student Publications Center, she said.

There are now only a few houses where visiting faculty can stay, Burch said. The rest have to stay in hotels.

Kevin Smiley, Student Government Association president and student regent, said he voted against purchasing the apartments for several reasons.

He said he doesn’t think money from the Division of Extended Learning and Outreach should be used to purchase housing for visiting faculty.

That money should go directly back to Kentucky, he said.

Smiley also said other locations should have been considered for the village so that a student community wouldn’t be destroyed.

“It’s got a cool kind of reputation that will no longer exist,” he said.

The village Western is creating in Colonial Courts will consist of visiting-scholar residences and an Office of International Programs that will house the offices for Study Abroad and International Student Services, both of which have programs that are growing, said James Flynn, interim chief international officer.

Creating a village for visiting scholars and international students will show a commitment to international programs, he said.