Long Hall will be reopened for the fall of 2006 after being closed this semester to save money, and Ellender Hall will return to being a women-only residence, according to Diane Garvey, director of residence life. Nicholls saved about $60,000 this semester by eliminating the costs of operating Long Hall, Scott Jenkins, director of student union and housing operations, said. This prevented the University from raising the cost of dorms to the students, Jenkins said, because “each year the University has difficulty in keeping its budget at a level to support the dorms.”

Students have mixed feelings regarding the move back to Long Hall.

Thomas Broady, freshman from Houma and resident assistant at Ellender Hall, formerly lived at Long Hall and will be returning there in the fall. Broady said that he has enjoyed his stay at Ellender Hall because of the private bathrooms and companionship with the women and would not mind staying there.

“At Ellender we (the men) acted more civilized because of the ladies,” Broady said.

However, others are eager to return to Long Hall. Albert Felix, freshman from Darow, said that he prefers only having one roommate and using community showers.

“When you live with three other boys, no one ever wants to clean, and it’s always noisy,” Darow said.

Since the closing of Long Hall, repairs to the air conditioning units, plumbing and main water pipes have been in process, Garvey said.

“We are making great headway getting the building back to operational shape,” Garvey said. “We have taken advantage of the time with no one in the building.”

Garvey said that the repairs will be completed for Long Hall to be used this summer for camps and conferences.

Jenkins said that there has also been stripping and waxing of the floors and painting in rooms but “no extensive repairs have been done.”

Michael Davis, Assistant Vice President for Administration, said that there will be no major renovations to Long Hall because it will eventually be torn down. Davis said this is because its accommodations like community showers are no longer popular.

“When Long was opening in ’68, community showers were the standard thing,” Davis said. “Today students have different needs and wants. Long just doesn’t meet those requirements anymore.”

Davis said there is no date of when Long Hall will be torn down but that he expects it to be soon.

In the meanwhile a 24-hour computer lab will be put in the lounge area, and the front doors will be replaced before the start of the fall semester, Garvey said.

Because there was a decrease in the number of students living on campus this semester, Nicholls was able to house all students previously living in Long in other residence halls, Jenkins said. This semester there were about 651 students living in residence halls as compared to about 767 students in the spring of 2005, Jenkins said. The numbers for the fall of 2005 were also lower, Jenkins said, comparing the 820 students in 2005 to about 927 students in the fall of 2004.

Jenkins attributes this decrease to the new admissions requirements, which he said reduced the number of new students living on campus. However, he said that the University is moving towards its goal of returning to fall of 2004 numbers.

“The University is slowly trying to find its niche in the new admissions standards,” Jenkins said. “We’re getting a lot more applications this semester than we did for last fall, so hopefully our numbers will be increasing.”

Jenkins said that the University is promoting the benefits of living on campus, both cost-related and career-wise, to incoming students by hosting roommate-matching socials.

The first social was held on April 19 in the Bollinger Memorial Student Union, and there are three more planned for June 14, July 26 and August 9. The two-hour program consisted of a networking social, informational sessions for parents and tours of the residence halls, Garvey said. Garvey said 101 people attended, 46 being new students. Twenty-eight students found roommates, Garvey said.

Garvey said that she received positive feedback and considers the event a success.

“I received comments like, ‘This is so good for my child since he did not know anyone at this college,’ or ‘We are so glad to have an opportunity to meet some other students and parents who will be here in the fall,'” Garvey said.