“ It has an incredible amount of long-term, deferred maintenance needs that the university cannot support. ”
— BARB SHERGALIS
By Kailynn McComas | Spring 2018
This summer’s demolition of the 53-year-old Harshman Quadrangle residence hall signals the demolition of traditional housing on campus.
“In general, campuses across the country are going to the suite style,” Barb Shergalis, director of design and construction, said. Shergalis said Harshman is being demolished because “it has an incredible amount of long-term, deferred maintenance needs that the university cannot support.”
Though the closing of Harshman is necessary, the loss of traditional housing comes with a mix of emotions. “I like traditional housing,” former Harshman Hall director Allison Adkins said. “The environment structure is important in how we create community. It is more difficult for people in the suites to meet other residents in other suites and so that community is not there as easily.”
Sophomore workforce education major Kaylee Robins has experienced both housing styles, having lived her first year in Kreischer and now in Falcon Heights.
“It’s really nice to have your own space to do things and not feel like you are living in the same space as somebody else,” Robins said. “I think that is more of a benefit than the traditional style.”
Over the last couple of years, the University’s housing style has moved in a new direction. Adkins is currently the Hall Director of Founders Hall which was converted into suite style in 1993. “We have our all-gender floor in Founders and that is specifically for residents who either don’t identify on the spectrum or don’t identify on the binary of gender or sexual orientation,” Adkins said.
“The need for a private bathroom is higher. I would like to see the private bathroom piece available to all residents.” Newer housing on campus deters from traditional housing. In Centennial, which was built in 2011, roommates share a bathroom as opposed to sharing a communal bathroom for the entire floor.
Falcon Heights, built in 2011, has both double room and single room suites with private bathrooms. “Where I have seen traditional styles work better on other campuses is where they have
pods, the privacy of the toilet and the shower, but there is a community sink,” Adkins said.
No plans have been announced about construction on new housing on-campus. Building projects on the books, however, do include utility upgrades to heating, air conditioning and lighting for residence halls. “We have a lot going on, Shergalis said.
“We are the implementors of the things the senior leadership decides on.” Although there no specific construction plans for residential buildings, University officials continually evaluate housing needs. “With having to rent off-campus housing for students that really wanted to live on campus, shows there is a need and students would like to be on campus,” Shergalis said. Whatever the plans are for new residence halls on campus, Robins said the future of University housing should be suite style. She is not alone.
According to Kirksey, an architecture firm in the Houston area that specializes in student housing, “Today’s typical college student desires more privacy, independence and technological convenience than ever before.”
