Price increases coincide with renovations

Room renewals for residence halls begin March 1 for the fall semester and students can expect to see price increases for select buildings.
Currently, MS Cooper Pinkerton and apartments in Tech Village are under construction.
“We are pretty much gutting everything except for the walls in MS Cooper Pinkerton,” said Charlie Macke, Director of the Office of Residential Life. “We are not changing the configuration of the hall, we are just putting all new floor, doors-both closest and outside doors-carpet in the hallways, paint, new furniture, upgrade the bathrooms and all new plumbing and do HVAC systems.”
A community kitchen will be reintroduced to MS Cooper Pinkerton. Macke said students will be responsible for cleaning up after themselves and the janitorial staff will maintain heavy duty cleaning.
The new renovations at MS Cooper Pinkerton will cost students $200 more than traditional residence halls such as Cooper Dunn and Ellington Warf. Based off prices from this semester, students living in MS Cooper Pinkerton next year could pay approximately $2,190 per semester for a standard two person room.
The only residence halls more expensive than MS Cooper Pinkerton are New Hall South and New Hall North at $3,175 per semester for a standard two person room.
Madison Jindrak, freshman, said she doesn’t feel as if the residence halls present enough value for the price. Jindrak lives in New Hall North.
“It’s way overpriced for what we get, I mean it’s nice to be close to campus but it’s not really worth the price,” Jindrak said.
MS Cooper Pinkerton will retain its name but will become the third learning village on campus. It will be the global village, joining New Hall North and New Hall South as the environmental village and the service learning village, respectively.
The construction in Tech Village is also extensive.
“We’ve gone in and totally gutted the inside and the only thing we are leaving and working with is the concrete block walls,” Macke said. The apartments will be completely refurbished with new appliances, flooring and new paint.
MS Cooper Pinkerton will reopen in August for Fall 2013 semester. It has been closed since January due to asbestos in the flooring, Macke said.
The Tech Village apartments are being completed in phases. The first apartments being renovated have a projected completion date of April 1. Two more apartments are scheduled to reopen in August.
The renovations are part of a long term plan. The next traditional residence hall building planned for renovation is Ellington Warf in 2014.