Like their counterparts at wealthier and leafier schools, several hundred City College of New York students later this month will be leaving home and moving into a college dormitory. The August 25 opening of its residence hall, the Towers, marks a new chapter for the Harlem-based school that has been attracting commuter students throughout its 159-year history.

The Towers, which cost $56 million to develop and construct, will house about 600 students. Roughly half are enrolled in City College, with the remainder attending other CUNY schools. While dorm registration this year was open to full-time students at any City University school, beginning in fall 2007, preference will be given to CCNY students who wish to live at the Towers, according to City College’s chief operating officer, Lois Cronholm.

“Having a dormitory makes a big difference in the experience of students,” Ms. Cronholm said. “It gives them a much fuller college experience, and we wanted that to be true for as much of our students as possible.”

Until now, CUNY’s sole student residence was a former New York University dorm near Hunter College’s Brookdale campus in Midtown that was acquired by the city system about 30 years ago. City College also had a men’s dorm for a short time that closed a half-century ago.

Rents at the Towers range from $775 for a shared bedroom in a two-bedroom suite to $1075 for a private bedroom in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment. Included are modern furnishings, high-speed Internet connections, cable television, utilities, and use of communal exercise, laundry, and gathering rooms. While the units are priced below market rate, paying for on-campus housing will be a stretch for many CUNY students, Ms. Cronholm said. “Most of our students are going to have to get loans — they’re going to have to scrape the money together,” she said. “Our students are not wealthy students, and we did everything possible to keep the cost down.”

Dorm rooms will be open year-round, and rents are to be paid in 12 monthly installments.

The 164-unit brick complex is divided into three wings of six, eight, and 10 stories. Situated on a formerly empty lot at the corner of St. Nicholas Terrace and West 130th Street, the Towers borders CCNY’s soccer field to the east and St. Nicholas Park to the west. “Part of what made this feasible is that we owned the land,” Ms. Cronholm said. “It would have been much more expensive if we had to buy the property, given Harlem real estate.”

In recent years, CCNY — a school that, through the 1960s, was considered the crown jewel of the City University system — has increased its academics standards and inaugurated a highly competitive Honors College program. Ms. Cronholm said she hopes an on-campus housing option will make CCNY even more attractive to top students.

Six studio and three one-bedroom apartments, renting for $1,100 and $1,600, respectively, are available to CCNY faculty. Five professors new to City College and four other faculty members are slated to move in at the end of the month, a City College project coordinator, Anthony Roberts, said. All of the faculty residents have agreed to give lectures and host gatherings in the dorm’s communal gathering areas, he said.

To enter the Towers, residents must pass through a card-operated turnstile. Visitors must be cleared security guards, who will be staffing the reception desk 24 hours a day. Resident advisers will monitor public interior spaces, while park rangers and CCNY public safety officers will patrol the perimeter, the Towers’ director for resident life, Christopher Clarke, said. Mr. Clarke works for Birmingham, Ala.-based Capstone Development Corp.,which has been contracted to oversee the building’s day-to-day operations. He said two Capstone employees would also reside in the dorm.

Attracting CCNY students to the new dorm is about “breaking the mold, as far as seeing this as a commuter school,” Mr. Clarke said.

The questions he has been fielding from would-be residents of the Towers don’t differ much from those asked by students at traditionally non-commuter schools, Mr. Clarke said. “They ask, ‘What if I don’t like my roommates?’ and ‘How will I get my mail?'” he said.

Mr. Clarke said 10 to 15 spaces are available.

After touring the Towers yesterday, an incoming CCNY freshman, Kenny Cheng, 18, said he hopes to snag one of those vacancies. A native of Venezuela, Mr. Cheng now resides in Flushing. “If I stay in Queens, the commute would be too long,” he said. “I was looking at apartments closer to college when I heard about this dorm. It looks nice.”

Tax-exempt bonds finance the project, which was completed in conjunction with Educational Housing Services.