While students were out, RPS renovations took place

While school was out of session for the summer and students headed home to relax, Residential Programs and Services worked hard to make several renovations to campus housing facilities.
“We believe it is our obligation to the students to improve the residence halls,” said Pat Connor, RPS executive director. “We have an ongoing 20-year plan of strategic improvement.”
RPS added amenities like air conditioning, wireless Internet, individual bathrooms and electronic entrance to dorm rooms in several on-campus residential locations. These improvements are meant to benefit current students as well as attract incoming freshmen.
“We are a residential campus,” said Neil Theobald, IU vice president and chief financial officer. “These dorms are more than just a place to live.”  
Theobald said studies show that students who live on campus achieve higher grades than those who live off campus and said he believes it is important to make residence halls appealing to students.
IU also is taking steps to provide air conditioning in more of the dorms. RPS renovated the Forest Quad B Tower to be completely air-conditioned.
The project cost $3.1 million.  
“We continue to make minor changes,” Connor said. “Forest had no air conditioning and there should be a choice for students in each neighborhood.”  
Although it was a much smaller project, Ashton Quad also received some construction.   
“We have new carpeting and all new furniture,” sophomore Jordan Brougher said.
He lived in Ashton as a freshman and decided to keep his same room this year.
“The place looks a lot better this year than it did last year,” Brougher said.
In Teter Boisen and McNutt Delgado, the communal bathrooms were removed and replaced with individual bathrooms. The project cost $2.4 million. Connor said bathroom renovations are important because they provide students with an enhanced amenity and gives them privacy.  
Private bathrooms are not the only change McNutt saw this summer. In addition, each room door is now totally card-accessible, which Connor said will help enhance security.
He said if a key is lost, anyone could get into that student’s room. However, if the student loses his or her ID and the loss is reported, the ID will be pulled out of the system.
RPS is also taking steps toward making McNutt Quad asbestos free. They are halfway done with this project.
University Information Technology Services also partnered with RPS over the summer so that students could access wireless Internet within their dorm rooms. Students living in Ashton Quad, Briscoe Quad, Collins LLC, Eigenmann Hall, Willkie Quad and Forest Quad B Tower now have strong wireless connections.
The process is ongoing, Connor said.  
By November, McNutt Quad and Teter Quad rooms will be wireless and by January, Read Quad, Wright Quad, Foster Quad and Forest Quad A Tower will have a wireless signal.
Connor said the renovations that were done in the summer of 2007 were well-received by students, so construction projects continued into this summer. RPS will progressively make changes to residence halls over a 15 to 20 year period.
“It is what students want,” Theobald said. “The plan is to renovate all the dorms.”