The newly renovated Harrill Hall. Photo by Max Maier.
Harrill Hall has technically been on WCU’s campus for years, but it has been overhauled and given a big tune up. After a year of renovation and a a small fire in the spring, this semester Harrill Hall is open for students.
The Board of Trustees gave the ok to work on Harrill on March 11, 2011. The renovations began on August 2, 2011 and work was done on Harrill up until the first students moved into the dorm for the fall 2012 semester. Some of the big changes to Harrill are the LED lights in the rooms, the new common rooms on every floor and air conditioning that runs on geothermal wells underneath the parking lots. The total project has cost around $15 million.
Since the start of the school year there have been several issues with the building. Some locks on suite doors were broken or jammed during move-in weekend and required locksmiths to keep coming back to get students into their rooms.
The whole building is riddled with bad phone connections for Verizon users, especially on the lower floors. The biggest problem so far has been the pipe break and flooding in two rooms on the second floor.
Despite the problems, the residents are still happy with their new home. Lauren Brown, a sophomore who lives in Harrill on the eighth floor, wanted to move into Harrill because most of her friends had already booked their rooms there.
“I wanted to live with most of my friends,” said Brown, “although I do miss the chaos of Scott and the bigger rooms over there. It feels smaller in Harrill. But it is ok, I can live in small spaces. I might even live here again next year.”
Hayden Dunlap, a second-year student at WCU, lives on the fourth floor. “I wanted to live with most of my friends, of course,” she said. “I also wanted to live in Harrill because I wanted to try out the suite style of rooms and enjoy a dorm with air conditioning.”
“I’ve been waiting for air condition for a long time,” Dunlap jokingly added.
“I like Harrill so far, but the location takes some getting used to,” Dunlap continued. “I’m hardly in my room because it takes a lot of time to get to my dorm from campus. I can’t go back and forth at ease.”
Megan Harry, a graduate from Oklahoma State, moved into Harrill a couple weeks ago as Harrill’s Resident Director.
“I love Harrill,” said Harry. “ It is very spacious in my apartment in Harrill on the first floor, and the students are very nice. I love these kids.”
