Times have changed since Cornelius Murphy was in college, where his dorm was a 12-by-12-foot room made of cinderblock.

The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s new on-campus dorm will make his college experience pale in comparison, said Murphy, president of the college.

With its own line of Stickley furniture, a 24/7 computer lab, Blink electric vehicle charging station, Centro bus stop, cable television, video game consoles and indoor bike storage space, Centennial Hall is no cinderblock shack.

The dorm, named in honor of ESF’s 100th anniversary, was completed as scheduled, with the finishing touches, including decorating and setting up furniture, making up the majority of the work done in July, Murphy said.

‘It’s absolutely completely finished,’ Murphy said.

Centennial Hall can house up to 452 students in three different types of rooms. All first-year students will live in two-person rooms with one bedroom and one bathroom. Upperclassmen can choose either a four-person room with two bedrooms and two bathrooms or a two-person room with two bedrooms and one bathroom.

The dorm is on track to be certified at the gold level for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Murphy said. The U.S. Green Building Council determines LEED certification based on energy use, air quality, water efficiency, carbon dioxide emission reduction and responsible resource use.

‘All the mechanical systems have to be operating and their systems tested,’ Murphy said. ‘The paperwork will be filed and the decision will be made before the end of the year.’

While all incoming freshmen secured spaces in Centennial Hall, there is not much room left over. With more than 500 incoming freshmen and transfer students, there aren’t many spaces available for upperclassmen.. 

‘With 452 spots, we are limited in how many spots we can offer for second-year experience,’ Murphy said. ‘We simply don’t have the capacity.’

Throughout ESF’s history, students lived in Syracuse University’s dorms or in off-campus apartments. The students were dispersed among the various SU dorms until recently, when ESF established learning communities within the dorms, which placed ESF students together. In previous years, incoming ESF freshmen were only guaranteed first-year housing, but had no problem securing housing in SU dorms for up to all four years of college, Murphy said. For the past three years, SU placed all incoming ESF and transfer students in the SkyHalls on South Campus.

‘It had some good aspects because it built a sense of community, but it also created some problems for our students,’ Murphy said. ‘It’s about a mile and a half from campus, so the bad part was our students had to use buses to get from housing to lecture halls and laboratories.’

Murphy said the shared academic experience between the two groups of students has been enriching for ESF students in the past and losing that will be one of the few negative aspects of the new dorm.

‘It’s with mixed emotions,’ Murphy said. ‘In most cases the relationship between our students and SU is a really good thing. If you can have an environmental science major live with a student from SU in the fine arts major, there’s something special about that.’

While most ESF students will live in Centennial Hall or off campus, SU reserved 45 beds for ESF students who want to live in SU dorms.

‘There’s always a trade-off, and overall, the trade-off is very positive,’ Murphy said.

Centennial Hall residents also said they thought the trade-off will be beneficial.

Rian Croteau, a junior environmental studies major, said that while the new dorm will not give freshmen the opportunity to interact closely with SU students like he did when he lived in the SkyHalls, the new community will help the incoming students feel more comfortable around each other.

Croteau said the new dorm’s Stickley furniture and more convenient location were what drove him to live in Centennial Hall.

‘I’m a huge architecture and design fan, so Stickley furniture was far more than I ever expected to see in a dorm,’ said Croteau, who will be living in a two-person room with two bedrooms and one bathroom.

Armando Villa-Ignacio, a freshman chemistry major, said that while he was required to live in the new dorm as an incoming freshman, the apartment-style amenities only sweetened the deal.

‘Each room has their own private bathrooms, come with a micro-fridge unit and you can control the temperature of the rooms individually,’ Villa-Ignacio said.

Residents of Centennial Hall have already begun to build a community before arriving on campus through a Facebook group dedicated to the new dorm.

‘I’m just really excited to be living in an environmentally friendly place with a bunch of people that think the way I do,’ Villa-Ignacio said. ‘I already talk to so many people, have a bunch of friends and I really cannot wait to live with them and see them everyday.’

The resident advisers are eager to experience the new dorm as well. Elizabeth McGinty, a sophomore aquatics and fisheries science major and first-time RA, said she is impressed with how nice the dorm looks.

‘Its proximity to campus is perfect compared to living in SkyHalls on South last year,’ McGinty said.

McGinty, who will be living in a two-bedroom apartment-style suite with another RA, said she is looking forward to having her own bedroom, along with a private bathroom and kitchen. 

‘It’s neat to know how our excitement and involvement in creating a community in Centennial Hall will change the way things are run for future years,’ said McGinty.

Although ESF is just welcoming the first residents of Centennial Hall, there is already talk of further expansion, with two new locations being discussed for new dorms, Murphy said. He said plans will become more formal in October and students can expect to see construction begin on another ESF dorm within the next two years.

jlsiart@syr.edu

Published on August 22, 2011 at 12:00 pm