The old saying goes: “out with the old in with the new.” A new building is being added to the Wayne State College campus, while an old one is being used for the last time. Students and faculty alike are trying to get used to the changes on campus.
Stearns Hall, a new dormitory for the residents of Berry Residence Hall and the future students of WSC was created as a request by students for newer, fresher accommodation. The construction of the new dormitory has entered its final stages.
“I talked with the students, and they told us they wanted a new dorm, so that’s how we got here,” Heidi Acton, director of Residence Life, said.
According to WSC’s website, Stearns will be a four-story building that will house 276 students with 168 suite style beds and 108 traditional beds. It will also have a main lobby with a kitchen, a lounge area, pool table, and a reception desk. The second floor will have a built-in gym for residents to work in without having to walk across campus to the Recreation Center.
The building is named after Shiela M. Stearns, the first female president of WSC who served between 1999 and 2003. Stearns changed a lot of the ways we see the school now, from the courses to campus life.
Stearns Hall will be the first building on campus to be named after a woman. Just like Stearns herself, the building is the first of its kind at WSC, and school officials hope to use it to bring about similar changes she did many years ago.
The opening of a new dorm means an old one is going to be replaced. Berry Hall, which has been a staple since the 90s, is officially closing.
“It will be closing sometime in 2025,” Acton said. “When in 2025? We don’t know. What will happen to it? We don’t know.”
Berry residents can finally look forward to moving out, but the move will not be without its own hardships.
“Living in Berry was a great experience, I feel like there’s a great atmosphere between the people who live here in this building,” current Berry resident, Emily Sorensen said. “I’m sad but also happy. I had so many memories over the past year and a half. It’s been my home”
Another resident, Matthew Ferris, shared the sentiment. “It’s nostalgic in a way,” Ferris said. “Living in Berry isn’t bad. The only downside is that I’m far from the Student Center.”
All current Berry residents are able to complete a form that would put them first on the list to live in Stearns Hall. Some residents, however, are choosing not to take the offer.
“I’m not sure I want to move to the new dorm,” Ferris said. “I didn’t fill out the form, and I don’t really mind where I live.”
Students have many ideas on what they want Berry to become when it is no longer used as a residence hall.
“I hope they turn it into a parking lot,” Ferris said.
“I hope they keep it so we can go back and look at it like it’s an old relic,” Sorensen said. “I think it will maybe turn into green space, like the Willow Bowl.”
Barriers are meant to be broken, and just like Stearns did in 1999 by becoming the first female president of WSC, this building is the first of its kind on campus, offering suite style rooms. However, with the new building comes the destruction of one many students will miss.
