Samuel Casey
News Editor
Andrews Hall, a residence hall that currently houses first-year students, will undergo renovations following the 2019 Commencement ceremony and will not reopen until August 2020. According to an article in The Daily Record from June 2018, former Associate Vice President for Facilities, Management and Development Doug Laditka stated that the anticipated budget for Andrews will be $6.25 million, which will include an air conditioning system.
Director of Residence Life Nathan Fein shed some light on the renovations of residence halls that have occurred on campus recently.
“Andrews was chosen by Facilities as the last of a series of three buildings to be renovated: Stevenson, Armington, then Andrews,” Fein said. Stevenson Hall was redone in 2017 and Armington Hall will reopen before the start of the 2019-20 academic year.
Fein added, “[Andrews] is going to be mostly doubles, with a few singles and triples [and] at this point we have not made a determination who will be occupying the space when it reopens.”
Douglass Hall, which currently houses upperclass students, will be converted into a first-year residence hall, at least for the next academic year.
In contrast to Fein’s statement, Maha Rashid ’19, former president of Inter-Greek Council (IGC), had the impression that Andrews would be used by Greek life.
“As of August of last year, IGC was told that Andrews was being renovated into suites for Greek housing. There would be 12 suites with five people in each one. Each Greek organization would be able to fill a suite and preference would be given to organizations that could fill Bissman [Hall] consistently in the past,” Rashid explained. “The whole year it was used as an incentive for current Greek organizations to fill Bissman,” she said.
This plan had to be approved by the Board of Trustees, but Rashid said that this did not occur. Additionally, she felt that Residence Life did not adequately explain this message.
“It was unfortunate to hear that the Board of Trustees did not approve the plan; however, Residence Life did not clearly communicate that it was not an available option until after the Bissman housing deadline had passed. Therefore, organizations were under the false understanding that filling Bissman would lead to an opportunity for better housing in the future,” Rashid said.
In addition to concerns from IGC and Greek organizations, some students have expressed displeasure regarding the closure of the student parking lot behind Andrews during the renovation.
Director of Security and Protective Services Steve Glick explained, “Between using the [parking lot] for equipment storage, using it as a lay down area and construction traffic, it needs to be closed.”
This will result in the loss of approximately 40 spaces out of 60 total will be closed for the entire year; however, 20 spaces located behind Armington and Stevenson in Lot 11 will become available once construction there is completed. This means that fewer North parking permits will be issued, so potentially students will have to park farther away or be denied a permit entirely if they do not buy one quick enough.
Regarding any considerations to building or converting a new parking lot, Glick stated that there was not any room.
“We are looking at a couple alternatives, but they won’t come close to replacing what we are losing,” Glick said. “We have about 800 employees and just over 400 employee spaces, [so] taking a staff lot away just transfers the problem.”
Regarding the concerns that students have, Glick acknowledged that even thought this is a temporary problem, that is little consolation if a student needs a car. However, he said he would be willing to work with students if there are special circumstances.
“If a student really needs a car on campus for education purposes (student teaching, for example) or to attend on-going medical appointments, I would ask the student to reach out to me or Joe Kirk to see if we can come up with an alternative,” Glick advised.