Rogers Hall is and will remain closed for the rest of the academic year for renovations starting October.

The renovations are mainly mechanical and aesthetic upgrades, like redoing the 12th-floor lounge with new furniture and infrastructure in addition to upgrading public spaces, said Aaron Cunningham, director of Auxiliary Facility Services.

“We’re gonna put a pretty big chunk of money into the lobby since we’re gonna put new door and window spaces into the lobbies,” Cunningham said. “We’re going to update the RED department. We’re also gonna do a fair bit of work on the hot water and cold water piping in the building.”

Although construction will begin in October, the department will wait until April to start window replacements and will complete renovations on July 1.

Enrollment numbers were not high enough to cause overcrowding in other dorms after the building’s closure, Cunningham said. 

“Our first-year students and carry-over student population is about what we expected it to be, and our capacity’s fine. We haven’t had to crowd anyone anywhere,” he said.

Bex Rock (they/them), junior English major, said they hope the renovations will help Rogers feel more similar to the north side of campus due to the noticeable difference in quality between the buildings on Northside and Southside.

“It was kind of interesting how on the Northside the buildings, not just the dorms themselves, but all the buildings, the gyms, the walkways, the dining hall and everything was a lot nicer as opposed to Southside,” Rock said.

Rock said they lived in Rogers Hall all of last year and agrees renovations are necessary because the hall was not quite up to par in some areas, especially the kitchen, which had some broken appliances, and the laundry room.

“The washer and dryer situation, one was very minimal for the amount of students in the building given that it was a 12-story building,” Rock said. “Usually, there was some sort of problem, like the washers wouldn’t drain properly so that your clothes would just be soaked in water that would spill out everywhere.”

Florian Leinfellner, junior mechanical engineering major, said he lived in Rogers Hall for four years, and he noticed very few problems with the building.

“The only thing that really bugged me was the elevators were always broken,” he said. “Every couple weeks something was happening. It may be super slow, or they wouldn’t work unless you pushed the doors in.”

Leinfellner said he did not spend much time at Rogers Hall, but when he did, he enjoyed the top floor’s amenities.

“They got pool tables up there, ping pong tables, TV’s on one half and the other half was a big study room,” Leinfellner said. “It was cool watching movies up there with friends, and it was a great experience just to go up there and chill.”

Rock said the benefits of living at Rogers Hall included meeting their roommate, who is now one of their best friends, and enjoying the sense of community there.

“It’s nice as an empty dorm to have that sense of community where you can kind of just go and knock on your friend’s door and say hi,” they said.