This summer, McClure residence hall’s lounge was renovated to include air conditioning and a brand new kitchen. Students have viewed this as a great investment by the College, as the triplet buildings—McClure, Roberts, and Gregory—are older and known to be a little less homey.
“I feel like a future upgrade in the Roberts Hall Lounge—like the one in the McClure Lounge—will help foster community and more bonding between the residents as it will allow them to have a better common area where they can come together and spend time on many different occasions,” Mustafa Rahman ’17 said.
The renovations to McClure provide residents with a more comfortable area to socialize, study, and even get an alternative to caf food since students now have a place to cook meals in their residence hall.
The Office of Residence Life plans to make similar renovations in Roberts and Gregory, also located on South Campus.
Residence Life has been looking for ways to make the McClure Lounge a place where residents could interact more readily and develop a greater sense of community.
The renovation makes the lounge a better place for events hosted by the Office of Residence Life, as well as by other clubs and organizations.
During hot weather, with the lack of air conditioning in the rooms in those buildings, residents will now have a common area where they can cool off.
Students living in McClure, Roberts, and Gregory often look for alternative study spots, especially since the library, Skybox, and many other popular places to study are located on Middle Campus, which isn’t always convenient from South Campus at night and in bad weather.
The addition of the full kitchen, including a stove top, will give students more meal choices, especially those who purchased the five-meal plan introduced this year by Aramark.
“On Saturday nights for dinner, I have very few choices due to the cafeteria being closed. Now, with the addition of the kitchen, I have the freedom to prepare any meal of my choice,” James Escobedo ’18 said.
To maintain the kitchen in good condition, compliance from residents is always needed, which includes washing dishes, cleaning up, using the kitchen equipment properly, and avoiding any potential hazards.
As always, the Office of Residence Life is happy to hear students’ feedback. Students can contact their resident assistant, resident director, and other Residence Life staff members with questions or feedback regarding Residence Life. Very recently, a Residence Life Q&A event was hosted in Lois Hall in which residents were able to come by, provide valuable feedback, and get their questions pertaining to Residence Life answered.
The resident assistants are hoping to host more events like this throughout the year to help the residents.
There are and will be other similar opportunities, such as open forum and town hall meetings, where residents are always able to voice their concerns.
