Renovations will soon begin on Royer Residence Hall, with the goal of having it open for the fall 2023 semester. The initial planning occurred in December, and construction is set to start before the end of January, signified by the construction dumpsters near the building.
Enrollment in Elizabethtown College has increased for the past three consecutive years. This has spurred a need for more housing to accommodate the growing Blue Jay community, as all full-time undergraduate students are required to live on campus—unless they are commuters or granted permission otherwise.
Associate Dean of Students for Community Living Jenn Crowder explained why the College decided to renovate Royer. “Royer Hall provides an ideal situation for renovation. It’s vacant, which means we won’t disrupt anyone. We have the means and time to put in a nice and modern renovation,” she said. “Lastly, because Royer is in great condition structurally, it just makes good fiscal sense to take advantage of the opportunity now. This will also provide students with more housing options to choose from moving forward.”
Royer is also on pace to become one of the more ADA (The Americans with Disabilities Act) accessible buildings on campus, unlike Myer, for example, which does not even have a ramp to provide wheelchair access.
“The major changes are creating greater ADA accessibility, which will include wider door frames, a wheelchair lift from the lounge to the first floor and pod-style restrooms,” Crowder said. “We are also adding a full kitchen, more study spaces and completely redoing the floors, paint, lighting, etc. We will continue to provide double and single rooms in Royer.”
Some students may be familiar with Royer, as it was where individuals were sent to quarantine upon testing positive for COVID-19 last year. Due to these bad memories, many are happy to hear of the renovations, including sophomore Resident Assistant (RA) Caroline Czerpak.
“[Royer] is kind of run down a little bit because it’s very old, and it’s nice that they’re able to get to it now since there was a pause put on it with COVID,” she said. “In general, I think that it’s really nice that [the renovations] open it up for more students to live there, [and for] more students to join the College. It’s just good that it will no longer be there sitting empty anymore.”
Royer will be available to all students, regardless of class standing. In addition, it will house the new Social Change Living Learning Community (LLC). In partnership with the Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking, this LLC is geared toward students interested in social justice—especially relating to diversity, equity and belonging objectives.
“The social justice floor is really interesting to me because I’m interested in advocacy and community work,” Czerpak said. “It sounds like it’ll be really nice.”
The Office of Housing and Residence Life will also be adapting to these changes. It plans to create three additional RA positions, with one placed on each floor of Royer.
“[We] look forward to building community again within Royer’s walls,” Crowder expressed.
