Photo: Emma Pile

The idea of a residential renewal has been thrown around the Elizabethtown College community for quite some time now. The College website has a section about these renewals that states the facilities are “aging” and the College wants to gain more funding in order to “enhance the living experience on campus and create meaningful communities for [the] students.”

The College has also stated the idea of campus “beautification initiatives,” which would make the campus, as Vice President for Student Life Dr. Celestino Limas puts it, “look the way it makes us all feel.” Since the end of last school year, the term “residential renewal” has taken a new form that has left many students unsure of the future of some of the residence halls.

Over the summer of 2017, Myer Residence Hall received a complete renovation of all of its bathrooms, leaving pod-style restroom clusters on each floor.

Over the summer of 2018, it saw a complete refresh, including new paint, flooring and lounge furniture throughout the building as well as a new game room and a TV room. Many students have referred to the new state of Myer as a “hotel” since seeing these renovations. But why Myer? What are the plans for the other residence halls?

There have been many rumors milling around the College community concerning the residential renewal plans, mostly concerning the Royer and Schlosser Residence Halls. Limas has been having open meetings in residence halls around campus to dispel some of these rumors and answer student questions.

He says that the administration realizes that students are going from their renovated classrooms back to their outdated dorms and he says that renovations would bring some “consistency” to the Etown experience, and they would be a “step up” from what we currently have, especially in terms of use of space and responding to student needs.

Limas told the Etownian that the next steps for this process will be to demolish and rebuild Royer, and when that is finished, demolish and rebuild Schlosser. Royer will likely be pushed down within the next 12-18 months, but there will be a more firm idea of when it will take place around Valentine’s Day of 2019. The reasons for this are that Royer and Schlosser are, in the eyes of the administration, the two buildings on campus in the worst shape.

They cannot just renovate the inside like they did with Myer because the plan is to create suites and more independent-style living in these rooms. That is what the administration believes will be the most popular with incoming students. Because of the way Royer and Schlosser were built, with the cinder-block walls, if construction crews were to try to knock down the existing walls inside, it would be significantly more expensive than rebuilding the entire building.

As for what is currently happening, Limas stated that the College has started the process of doing a Request for Information (RFI) to “solicit from a number of development companies across the country that all do higher education residence hall buildings, and a number of companies here regionally just to give them a chance to submit some initial proposals.”

The administration is trying to find a relationship with a developer that will suit the needs they are looking to fulfill, but have the College be more of a client so the developer would front the cost and the institution would not.

As to the question about where students will be housed while these buildings are being rebuilt, Limas said that the College will begin by filling the vacant rooms that already exist on campus, such as the empty tower in Founders Residence Hall, but that the inevitable plan is to build a second townhouse complex on “College Hill,” which is the area by the Bowers Writers House behind Ober Residence Hall.

These townhouses could go up much faster than a residence hall. Only one hall would be able to be offline at a time. Assuming the new tuition transparency plan succeeds in bringing in a larger first-year class, Limas says that he “does not know if we will have enough beds” to continue to accommodate that many students and to support the four-year residency agreement.

Therefore, the administration is currently doing a lot of research to see if moving to a three-year residency requirement may be a more positive and doable change that could help keep everyone housed.

Around Valentine’s Day 2019, the administration hopes to have a better idea of who the developers may be so that they can begin to establish a firmer timeline.

There is excitement among the student body.

“I’m excited for residential renewal. I think it will help make the campus even more attractive than it already is,” sophomore Matt Smith said.