Grace Hall to become residence for students

by StephanieMasucci assistant A&E editor

Grace Hall, which now consists of faculty offices on the second level, will soon be home to the incoming class this fall.

According to the Director of Facilities Mike Caranfa, the target date for construction is May 17.

The new rooms will be ready to live in by the fall of 2000, and the college hopes to have a certificate of occupancy by August 17. building, which happens to be one of the original structures on this campus, has been an important link for student-teacher relationships.

Some teachers feel that if the faculty is placed in group offices, confidential advising will be more difficult.

"The students and faculty have always been flexible and adaptable," explained history professor Dr. Jolyon Girard. "It will disrupt students and faculty but we will make do. The administration con• sidered other ideas but this turned out to be the best option."

Girard, who occupies an office in Grace Hall, was a professor here at Cabrini when Grace Hall was previously a dorm.

The school was smaller then and the faculty was smaller in numbers.

Girard reported that years ago, students said that living in Grace Hall was not comfortable. They preferred the dormitories.

Acting Dean of Students Paul Weaver said that he feels that putting students in Grace Hall is a good idea.

He naturally wishes that the new dorm was completed, but he feels that this is better than asking students to commute.

These rooms, which will only be assigned to the class of 2004 and transfer students, will consist of singles, doubles, triples and three quads.

It will be a non-smoking building and will bold up to about 6070 students.

"Security will not be anissue in this building," Weaver explained. "Every night a security guard will be placed on duty at the door."

The admissions, registrar, financial aid and academic affairs of- fices will all remain on the first floor. The Grace Hall Atrium may possibly be made into a new lounge.

According to Weaver, Woodcrest will only be housing freshmen women as of next year.

This will prevent a strife among upper classmen and allow the freshmen to be with their own class.

Weaver feels that the impact on present students will be minimal.

By the end of February, students can expect to see an "Intent to live on campus" form in their mail boxes.

This will help the residential life office determine how many students are seeking on-campus housing next year.

Many things will be considered in the housing selection this year, including the distance a student lives from the school.

Students are not the only ones who will have to adjust to this change.

"The teachers will move this summer as well as the faculty support office," said Dr. Jonnie Guerra, vice president for academic af- fairs.

The mansion and the new section of the Founders Hall building hold faculty.

"It's going to be disruptive for the faculty and the administrative offices. I think we'll all live through it though," Guerra said.

It is no doubt that it will be bard to concentrate on paper-work while listening to the sounds of drills and hammers banging above the administrations head.

There have not been definite plans as to exactly where each teacher will go.

"All the teachers will be placed back in their original offices, (in Grace Hall) the fall of 2001," Guerra said.

When the new dormitory is built, it won't be necessary to keep students in Grace Hall.

The cost of making these offices into bedrooms will be around $400,000.

It will include adding bathrooms, fixing the floors and removing the window air conditioners and replacing them with the original windows.

Caranfa stated that he does not think it will cost any money to put the bedrooms back into offices when the new dorm is complete.

It will, however, cost money to fix up the offices in the mansion. This old building, which has not needed much reconstruction, will have to be examined.

The carpet and the paint on the walls is in acceptable shape but there might not be enough power to handle these new offices.

The mansion does not have central air conditioning and therefore will require window units that use a great deal of electricity.

The first phase of construction of the new dorm began two weeks ago and is planned to be finished by this time next year. Crews must excavate the surrounding ground area in order for any physical building construction to begin.

However, no one will be admitted into the new dorm until the fall of 2001.

Caranfa feels that it would be a waste to move students with only a few months left in the spring semester.