Newly remodeled private rooms will soon be available in McCormick and Blaine Halls.

New furniture, carpet, a refrigerator and microwave are what students can look forward to once renovations have been completed.

“We’ve had a high demand on single rooms,” said Adam Griffin, residence director. “They are paying more for them, so we wanted to offer them more than the average dorm room.”

Aside from making the rooms more comfortable, constant maintenance issues in some of the rooms finally led to the renovation plans.

“A few months ago we had a room that we were having some very bad odor problems with from what we suspected was probably mold,” said Bob Harrington, director of the Physical Plant.

Once looked into, Harrington said over time, water from the air conditioning had leaked into the particleboard, which is built into the wardrobe in the room, causing the odor. Once they began fixing the problem in the rooms, they added lights and brought in wardrobes like those in East Hall and added carpet. Harrington said they eventually came out with what a private room should look like.

“Basically, we had a problem and as we solved the problem it kind of gave us the opportunity to go ahead and finish out the room and everybody liked the way it looked,” Harrington said. “There was a girl that was having allergy problems from it and they moved her out.”

Kortni Brous, freshman nursing major, had maintenance trouble in her room so she is the first to move into one of the renovated rooms.

“It’s so much nicer,” she said. “I have new lighting; the old lighting in the room made it look dark. I like the carpet and the new furniture.”

Brous had problems with asbestos tile in her room and said she believes all of the rooms should be looked into.

“I think they should all be renovated, because my mom lived in these exact same dorms when she was in college,” she said. “There hasn’t been a change since then and that was a long time ago.”

Griffin said he would like to have all of the dorm rooms renovated, but it is a monetary issue.

“A lot of the infrastructure that keeps this place going is where the money is being spent,” Griffin said. “We would love to be able to do just everything, but we can’t.”

He said while students may complain about what is wrong and needs to be changed in the dorms, they look past what is consistently being fixed for their living arrangements.

“What students see is all the appearance,” Griffin said. “They see the carpet. They see the furniture. They see the paint on the walls. Nobody keeps in mind the heat, the air unit, the water pipes and these things have to be repaired on every building.”

In Dryer Hall, Harrington said renovations will also take place starting May 22.

“We’ve had problems with the pipes, they’ve just been there so long that they’re deteriorating and having bad leaks in there,” Harrington said. “We’re going to totally re-pipe that building.”

Depending on what other projects come up for the Physical Plant, Harrington said he hopes to get the private rooms all renovated over the summer.