Verder Hall is reopening for student housing after being closed for three years.

“Verder is back and will be housing incoming freshman and sophomores,” said Jill Jenkins, senior executive director of university housing and culinary services. “I am expecting [it] to house 250 students for the fall semester.”

It is being reopened to meet the demand for on-campus housing, Jenkins said.

“The incoming class is on pace to be larger than least years’s, but the demand for housing also includes second year and upper-class students,” she said.

Verder’s original shutdown came in March 2020 when the university shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When students and faculty were allowed to come back to campus in fall 2021, Verder Hall stayed closed.

“We did not need to use Verder because our occupancy demand was already meeting the students’ needs for housing,” Jenkins said.

During the 2021-2022 school year, Verder was used for isolation housing. This was an option for students to go to when they tested positive for COVID-19.

Dylan Shanahan, a senior business major, spent a lot of his time with friends that lived in Verder Hall in the 2019-2020 school year.

“The floors were not very nice and it was always really hot in the summer or spring, and really cold in the winter,” Shanahan said.

Throughout the years, the hall has had some minor renovations but there is still no air conditioning.

“Over the past eight years we have added new windows and roofs,” Jenkins said. “We also had new flooring installed over the past year.”

Verder Hall is the only residence hall to not have air conditioning, Jenkins said.

“I think living in a dorm with no air conditioning is very challenging and hard,” Shanahan said. “You really have to rely on fans and heaters to make sure the living conditions are somewhat manageable.”

The dorms have double rooms with communal bathrooms. Verder dorm rooms come with extra long twin-sized beds that can be lofted, microwaves, fridges and freezers.

Verder has a similar layout to Dunbar, Engleman and Prentice Halls, Jenkins said.

Tyler Pyles is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].