The highly anticipated renovations, repairs, and refurbishings to Lamson Hall are here! Over the summer of 2024, Maranatha Volunteers International renovated certain parts of the women’s dormitory. However, out of the 296 bedrooms in Lamson, only 31 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms in Lamson’s northwest suiteside were renovated. Students in unrenovated Lamson rooms were left disappointed, envious of those with new rooms.
In an interview with the Student Movement, Matthew Fitting, dean for Undergraduate Residence Life, explains the nature of the renovations and addresses student concerns for future renovations.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
When did serious conversations about renovating Lamson start?
A huge part of the renovations that took place came from Dr. Taylor himself. He’s the individual who found the connection with Maranatha and wanted them to come in and start that process, along with ensuring that there were funds to do the renovations. I think the closest official announcement was the town hall that took place last year. It was surprising to students, faculty, and staff because it was the official yes, whereas everything else had been rumor up to that point.
How did the lobby renovations come about?
Each year the university takes all the monies that are collected as income [and disperses them across campus based on need]. Residence Life is one entity that got some of those funds, which, coupled with our own budget, let us make the lobby a priority. My focus was creating an area where you could lounge and be comfortable but also have little study areas, as well as some surfaces where we can play games and things like that—we have a big 8-foot table coming. I think of it like a large living room—our space where both genders [can interact].
What job did you have to play in the renovations?
I had a smaller role. One of the things I thought would be more of an interest to our residents would be to have a larger shower. The interior decorator for the university consulted me on some of the finishes and I gave input on them. We’ve moved to a floating vanity and talked about getting additional power sources in the bathrooms. Things I emphasized early on were the movable desks—I picked those—and we were also trying to lighten the surfaces of the walls. The previous paint color was darker and, in a smaller space, when you have a darker color on the wall, the room feels even smaller. I cannot take a lot of credit because this wasn’t my project. I was just gifted the opportunity to give input.
Would you say more about Maranatha and how they got involved with the project?
Maranatha is [a Seventh-day Adventist-led] group that does projects throughout the world. They advertise for the project and try to bring in a group of skilled laborers, as well as people who just have the heart of wanting to be involved. Their goal was to be here for two weeks; as soon as school ended and everyone moved out of the dorm, they wanted to start immediately. They also volunteered their time to do this. They came in and focused on carrying out all the desks, painting, and tearing out bathrooms, and then they started the process of plumbing. But they were short on their skilled laborers and weren’t able to execute as much as they hoped to so plant services personnel had to carry a significant part of the load so the project was completed by the time people were ready to move in. There were definitely lots of prayers on my end!
They renovated only 31 rooms. How was the choice made to renovate only those rooms on that side of Lamson?
The plumbing [in Lamson Hall] is stacked. There’s a pipe that runs all the way from the third floor to the basement and out through the main sewer line. The showers, toilets, and sinks all drain to that same pipe that runs vertically through the building. That main pipe is capped and made of old cast iron, so it deteriorates. Overtime, hair, toilet paper, and more will stick to it and, like paper mache, it will just get smaller and smaller, which is why there would be so many issues with toilets not flushing and showers draining slowly. The focus was to take a whole stack and replace that whole stack since it would minimize plumbing issues that we have in Lamson. As they were choosing rooms, about 10 years ago they had started on that side of the building and done two bathroom suites from third floor down to the basement, so they picked up from there. Next summer the focus is to go to the other side of the hall and do the rooms on that side.
What are all the renovations that were made?
The whole room refresh includes: new carpet, new paint, new window coverings, new desks, new chairs, new flooring (tile), new sinks, new vanities, new toilets, new cabinets above the toilets, and new ceilings.
How would you respond to a person who is disappointed that their room wasn’t renovated?
The wish is for everyone to experience having a new room. I’m going into my third year here and I recall when I attended Andrews years ago and lived in Meier Hall. I don’t know what's changed within the rooms in decades. There was the absence of hope that change was going to occur for a lot of residents. While you might not be in a room right now that has been refreshed, the exciting thing is that there is hope that you could experience that in the time that you’re here at Andrews. That’s something that’s been missing for a while I think: for people to feel. It’s exciting that this change is happening and I’m blessed that it’s happening in the time I’m here.
Do you want to add anything else that you want people to know?
People have been advocating for this need for a long time. This should give us the idea that these things don’t happen often. I urge our residents to treat it well, care for it, and appreciate the gift that’s been received. There is an attitude we have sometimes that “this is what we deserve.” We do deserve this, but something that we deserve is something we also have the responsibility of caring for. I don’t want this to be something that someone just experiences for one year as new, I want this to be something that people can come in and be proud to live in for years to come.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of 老司机传媒. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, 老司机传媒 or the Seventh-day Adventist church.