The office of residential services established a five-year plan for refurbishment of the residential halls on campus.
Although there are no plans for major renovations, the tentative plan includes a variety of updates to all residential halls. Some regular cyclical updates, such as painting (mostly in the rooms in Long Hall) and the installation of 150 new mattresses, were accomplished this summer. The current plan lays out a list of continual, prospective updates ranging from the beginning of this school year until December 2007.
“This is an approved plan right now. We need to plan every year. Sometime later this fall there’ll be another revision,” Gray Bekurs, director of residential services, said.
“The plumbing and HV/AC really need to be addressed,” Bekurs said in reference to the infrastructural issues in Long Hall.
He also made reference to condensation problems in halls, also to be addressed over the next few years.
Most residential halls do not currently have individual air-conditioning units. Installing these units would mean a major renovation of the entire building — a repiping of the entire system.
“There’s nothing specifically planned as far as major renovations right now, ” Bekurs said.
Albeit no major renovations are in the plans, there are many smaller updates planned in the coming years. Some prospective updates in the next two years for the family housing complex include purchasing and installing new playground equipment for the children, painting doors and door frames, installing two new stoves to replace original appliances and purchasing a new picnic table. The family housing complex should also receive two new refrigerators and two new stoves in the next year.
There are plans to replace the individual desktops and drawers on two floors in Long Hall, and in South Babington, the HV/AC is to be repaired and/or replaced. In Millet Hall, the wooden doors that were damaged in a previous flood are to be replaced, and in Zeringue Hall, all bathrooms and individual rooms should be painted. In both Zeringue and Millet Halls, boiler/chiller concerns are to be addressed.
Babington is to receive plants, shrubs and flowers in the front and the back of the residence halls in accordance with the hall’s “greenery program.” In Ellender Hall, one or two triple-occupancy rooms will be converted into a study room equipped with tables, chairs, reference books, a chalkboard and other accessories. Many other smaller updates are planned for the halls for the duration of the next five years.
Because these updates will be mostly simple and small, there should be no concern about inconveniences during the updates for students currently residing in one of the residential halls.
“Replacing the furniture — things like chairs, can be replaced without really inconveniencing anybody other than for the five minutes you’re in the room switching it out,” Bekurs said.
All updates are tentative and none are set in stone, which leaves room to accommodate the thoughts, ideas and concerns of students. Students who have a specific concern or request will be able to voice their opinions about what needs to happen in their halls.
“One thing we’ll be doing over the course of the next few months is surveying the students, and talking to other folks here on campus, and deciding what we need to do, and what the next step is,” Bekurs said.
When given a taste of the new updates, students currently living in residential halls had many things to say. Of the four random students questioned, all were positive about the prospect of new updates to their rooms and halls and shared their current concerns.
“I think there should be a study section, then a TV section so people that want to watch TV can go and watch TV and the study room can be separate. That way everybody can study if they want to, and the TV won’t interfere,” Natasha Busch, a freshman from Kaplin, said,
“Get the bugs out of my room,” Jami Rowan, a freshman from Baton Rouge, said,
“Ever since I came here, my air-conditioner isn’t working,” Marcus Martin, a freshman from New Orleans, said,