Residential Services working on improving new and old buildings at UNT
By: Cheyenne Parish, Shekinah Berry, Matthew Brune, Jake Gray
There is a lot of work involved when it comes to building and maintaining resident halls across campus. With new halls popping up such as Joe Greene it is hard for students and staff at UNT to feel as if their previous needs are being taken care of. Not to mention the new construction across campus can make it appear that the older halls or buildings are not a priority.
However, according to Associate Director for Residential Services Craig Zemmin, the staff continues to maintain any hall that students or staff live in.
Many students feel as though the older resident halls have been forgotten about. There have been complaints far beyond minor inconveniences. Some of which include no hot water, no working appliances, thin walls and lack of renovations or updates.
Traditions is a hall that has only been around for 16 years. But in comparison to the newer halls even Traditions faces some issues. Sarah Galaway, a senior, spent her freshman year in Traditions with some of these issues.
“The hall was pretty clean most of the time,” Galaway said. “The part I did not like was having to trek a mile from my parking spot to Traditions through masses of crickets.”
According to Zemmin, crickets are one of the biggest complaints they get across all resident halls especially in the warmer parts of summer and fall.
“Crickets are fun,” Zemmin said. “Crickets have an annual occurrence but whether it be a minor or major repair we try and address it.”
According to Zemmin, residential services do try and continuously renovate their older halls. For example, Maple is a two year project that is already underway. The third floor of Maple has already been renovated and in the next year the second and first floors as well.
“Once August 2020 comes Maple will be hit hard and the courtyards should be done there too,” Zemmin said. “The buildings are solid they just need additional work to make sure they stay solid.”
With many multi-year plans for the older dorms it is likely that over the next few years there will be many positive changes in resident halls across campus. Including more eco friendly options such as switching to LED lights to save energy. Zemmin says that many of these projects involve long term planning but will be eventually handled.
Zemmin wants every student to feel that they have a voice and stressed the importance of filling in work orders when students feel that they have an issue. In the past 6–8 months students can go online to facilities.unt.org and put in an online work order. So far this has been a success in getting students concerns addressed quicker.
“Everyone will have a different opinion about a building and different concerns,” Zemmin said. “Let your voice be known. One of the best ways is the UNT facility site that has a work order system. You can put an online work order in.”
Zemmin says that all staff is constantly working to improve the buildings both new and old at the University. Meaning that in the next few years UNT should have a lot more renovated dorms and buildings on campus.