By Jacob Trump
Before the start of 2024’s fall semester, an email from Student Life Assistant Vice President Bobbe Denise Cole left many students in shock and disbelief.
The email said Main Hall will have no available rooms for the fall semester because the building’s third and fourth floors were under renovation. The message was sent July 31, about two weeks before students could move back to campus.
“We did not anticipate any delays during room selection,” Cole said in the email. “The university will be renovating both floors in all aspects.”
In a similar email sent to Finley Hall residents, students were asked to volunteer to live in a double room, at the double room rate of $4,160 a semester. It was made clear in the email that, if too few people failed to volunteer, roommates would be assigned.
“Finley Hall, from its original construction in the 1970s up until 2019, was always a building of doubles,” said Alex Huffer, director of Residence Life and Housing. “Until 2020, every single room in Finley had two residents, similar to the style of first-year dorms Ross and Davidson Hall.”
The Residence Life staff was given the monumental task of figuring out not only the new rooms for the residents removed from Main, but also to choose who would get a roommate and who would not.
“If a student applied early for housing, I put them in Finley without a roommate,” Huffer said. “Whoever applied last to Finley got a resident from Main to be their roommate.”
Students were sent a form, allowing them to choose their preferred option, but the form failed to include factors like which halls students could move into.
As a result, administrators got a mix of responses from the student body, most of them leaning negative. Elijah Horman, a Main Hall resident the previous school year (2023-24), was one of them.
“I was very angry,” Horman said. “Less because we couldn’t move into Main, more because they didn’t notify us about anything prior, because the email came out July 31, where the housing assignments were supposed to come out the next day on Aug. 1.”
Most students who preferred to have their own room were accompanied by another student who preferred to have a single dorm.
“Main is all single dorms, so all the students who were in the main were most likely introverts who respected their privacy,” says Horman. “Now, they are all getting paired up with other students, who also respect their privacy.”
James Weller, an RA on Finley Hall’s second floor, was originally assigned to Main Hall, but has been forced to move into Finley and share a room with another RA. One of the well-known benefits of being an RA is getting a single room.
“Living in Main allowed me my own space to live as well as the opportunity to sit in a shared space when I wanted to,” Weller said. “Now that I have a roommate, I can’t just be alone when I want to anymore. I’m forced into a space where privacy no longer exists, unless I use the bathroom.”
In total, 45 to 50 students were affected by this change. This includes not only Main but Bingham, Finley and Frazier residents.
“Generally, the student body would appreciate some transparency on what’s going on with this project and any other surprise projects that may be coming up,” Horman said. “So maybe once a month they send out an email saying, ‘Hey, construction is still going on, so here are the expected delays,’ rather than just saying, ‘We’re renovating all aspects of Main’ and leaving it at that.”
Many students on campus are adjusting to their new living situations, yet they remain frustrated. But, for now anyway, staff can do little more. As of now there is no real set date on when the renovations are to be completed in Main Hall.
“In terms of being able to provide details to students in the future, it’s kind of in flux in many ways,” Huffer said. “So, currently, we’re going to continue on in the same way we are right now, which is, Main will remain closed for the foreseeable future. As we have people, we’ll place them into openings around campus.”