Late into the Fall semester of 2018, it was brought to the attention of SXU students, residents in particular, that Pacelli Hall would no longer be an option for residency for upperclassmen.
The news was delivered with other housing implementations set to be initiated for the Fall semester of 2019. These changes also included the reopening of O’Brien, the closure of Regina Hall, and an overall initiative to lower the amount of single occupancy dorms on campus.
According to Katy Thompson, Assistant Vice President for Campus Life & Director of Residence Life, “Current trends and enrollment projections indicate that an ideal residence hall capacity of approximately 475 beds are needed to meet the housings demands of our students.”
Thompson’s goal was to make sure the SXU community knew their concerns came first. She consoled, “We know that student preferences of housing type, accommodation requests to meet documented needs, roommate preferences, room rates, and community gathering spaces are all important aspects of students’ decisions to live on campus.
“We are committed to providing the best possible housing options and living experiences available at SXU.”
Thompson also referred to an “…open forum discussion that will be scheduled at the beginning of the Spring 2019 semester.”, who’s official date would later be announced for March 20th, 2019.
Suspicions on the future of Regina Hall, SXU’s oldest residence hall, started to spread among the school. Some students thought that the building was going to be demolished and repurposed into addition parking plots. Others suspected that the Regina Hall would suffer the same fate as O’Brien, remaining closed until the desire to accomodate for more students was needed.
When Timothy E. Martin, Assistant Director, Living-Learning Communities (LLC), and former Graduate Hall Coordinator for Regina, was asked to comment on the closure of Regina to “set the record straight”, he expressed a willingness to communicate, but lacked the resources to do so.
“From what I understand, the decision to close Regina was made by the Board of Trustees and President Joyner. Since the decision didn’t come from Residence Life, I’m not familiar with the specifics.” Martin shared that the plans to transition Pacelli Hall to first year housing was already underway. “What I do know is in Residence Life we have adjusted our housing occupancy plan to prepare for Regina to be offline next academic year, and Admissions is now showing the Pacelli Hall show room during tours instead of Regina – but that is the extent of my knowledge.”
Martin would able to announce a new online tool for residents, “eRezLife”. While unable to provide specifics, the tool would be used “to improve the customer service we provide”.
Arrangements were made to speak to Tony Campbell, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, and Katy Thompson, Assistant Vice President for Campus Life and Director of Residence Life.
The day prior to the arranged meeting, scheduling complications surrounding Ash Wednesday meant that Thompson would no longer be available to interview.
The interviews proceeded solely with Campbell. When asked how long higher administration had been considering Regina’s closure, Campbell shared, “In first semester, we wanted to get some idea of what it would cost to renovate the building.
“We contracted with some engineering firms to give us some costs and what the cost of renovations would be. We got that back around the end of November, early December. Then we had to go to the trustees before we can make any final decisions.”
According to Campbell, the Board of Trustees wanted further estimates before coming to a definitive decision. Campbell then shared that at this stage, administration was developing ideas for Regina, but needed approval from the Board.
Campbell shared, “We were making it known in some groups, because they had to know. The number of students we have living on campus is going down.” Campbell remarked.
”We’re getting more and more commuters, so we didn’t really need that building.”
This was contradictory to the rumors that had circulated previously, which said that the capacity for dorming students was actually getting too high, and in an attempt to consolidate space, there was a push to get upperclassmen into the Quad Halls.
“That’s totally not true. That’s not why Regina’s closing. We anticipate next year we will have 470 residents [through all the halls]. This year we had 500. O’Brien was actually closed because we didn’t have enough people to fill it. We’ve always had capacity.”
When asked about accommodations for upperclass students that used Pacelli as a fiscally viable housing option, especially once the SXU apartments closed, Campbell stated, “We’re going to have less singles because of the capacity, but I don’t want to answers specifics, that’s why [Thompson] is needed. We’ll have more suite options and less single options… I think what’s going to happen is it’s going to go into your cost of attendance and your financial aid, so there will be some balancing in financial aid. But there’s not going to be price reduction in suites. That price has already been set so it’s always going to be the same.”
Campbell then reiterated that SXU tuitions calculates student’s Need-Based Aid. “I don’t know if it’ll be dollar-for-dollar, but there will be something in there. Campbell seemed excited for the new prospects that freeing up an expense would offer. Last year we developed a new exercise science program. But it takes time to develop those programs. There’s going to be several new majors and certificates that they’re working on. If we want to expand supplemental instruction, more tutoring services; something like that we’re going to be able to invest in as opposed to a debt service.”
Campbell also shared in his lament of the loss of the Res Center, the lobby of Regina Hall. “Some of the other things we’re looking at is that we’re losing a big programming space. Right now we’re looking at other options.”
These options included the 4th floor Board Room in the Warde Academic Center, the Andrew Conference Center, Butler Hall and the Atrium. Resident’s Life will be hosting an open forum to provide further clarification about Regina’s closing. The forum will be on Monday, March 18th, 2019 starting at 3:30 PM.
Eric Perez
News Reporter