“Of all of the places that we have open as residence halls to live in, in my three years [at Truman], Centennial Hall has been the least popular,” Van Boxel said. “It is the last building to fill. The folks who gravitate towards Centennial, who are returning, go over there because of the singles and the buyouts.”
Dec. 3, Truman State University announced the Centennial Hall would be closing. The decision to close down the residence hall comes from the closure of the dining hall within Centennial Hall, upcoming renovations to the hall and the lowered student demand to live in that residence hall.
The Centennial dining hall was closed so the Missouri dining hall could be reopened. The Missouri dining hall is the most recently renovated dining hall on campus. The dining hall was renovated during the summer of 2018.
Since the Missouri dining hall was renovated with bonds specifically intended for the renovation of the dining hall, the University has been recommended by the University comptroller to reopen the dining hall to demonstrate that revenue is coming from the dining hall, Jamie Van Boxel, director of Residence Life, said.
The plans for installing new windows for the hall also added to the decision to close Centennial Hall, Tyana Lange, vice president for Enrollment Management and Marketing said. The new windows in Centennial Hall are the next objective for the University’s capital improvement plan. Centennial Hall will likely be closed for two years, Lange said.
Student demand for living in the residence hall was also a factor in the decision, Van Boxel said.
“Of all of the places that we have open as residence halls to live in, in my three years [at Truman], Centennial Hall has been the least popular,” Van Boxel said. “It is the last building to fill. The folks who gravitate towards Centennial, who are returning, go over there because of the singles and the buyouts.”
Missouri Hall is a more popular residence hall compared to Centennial Hall according to the room self selection, Van Boxel said.
One of the main concerns of students living in Centennial Hall is the lack of air conditioning in the rooms. Currently, only the hallways have air conditioning. Last year, the University’s physical plant examined the electrical capacity of Centennial Hall to determine if it was possible to put window air conditioning units in each room. The plant determined the building can not support window air conditioning units in all of the rooms during the academic year while students have microfridges and other larger electronics in the rooms.
The electrical infrastructure will be examined by the University during the closure of Centennial Hall to determine what options there are for air conditioning, Lange said.
Those employed by the University working at Centennial Hall will continue to work at the University.
“[Housekeepers] will just be reallocated to the other buildings,” Lange said. “No one is losing their jobs in any shape or form … and the same with the dining staff, there will be no one losing their job there. There will be some reorganization as Missouri [dining hall] gets open and Ryle [dining hall] stays open.”
To help make room for students currently living in Centennial Hall, additional floors will reopen in various other residence halls, beginning in the fall.
Dobson Hall will reopen its second floor, which will also be a pet friendly floor. Dobson will also be operating as all single rooms. Missouri Hall will reopen its third floor, and possibly the fourth floor, depending on first year student enrollment, Van Boxel said.
This year at Campbell Apartments, there are about 15 rooms for quarantine and isolation for students having or been in contact with COVID-19. Next year, Campbell Apartments will be completely open for returning students to choose to live there.
West Campus Suites will reopen its fourth floor next year. However, the quarantine and isolation spaces will be moved from Campbell Apartments to West Campus Suites. The exact number of rooms that will be held for quarantine and isolation will be determined as more is learned and discussed about the Omicron variant, Van Boxel said.
Additionally, Residence Life is increasing the number of buyouts available in both West Campus Suites and Missouri Hall, Van Boxel said.