Students migrate back to Rich Hall

It may not have been Katrina, but after a week of living in temporary housing, residents of Rich Hall are home.

The explosion of the boiler in Rich Hall on Friday, Nov. 2, forced an extended evacuation of the building, requiring residents to relocate to either Richards Hall or Building B of the Living Learning Center. At the time of evacuation, students were given 10 or 15 minutes to gather clothes, toiletries and anything else they could carry before they were taken to the temporary residences, said Nathan Harrison, junior double majoring in math education and deaf education. At the time, students were told to expect to be gone until at least Tuesday, Harrison said.

The Tuesday deadline was originally given as the earliest possible return date by USU Police Chief Steve Mecham, but Tuesday came and went, and residents of Rich Hall were still away from home. Harrison said he was told Wednesday was a possible date to return, then it turned into Thursday and some estimates were given that it could be as long as the next Wednesday before they would be able to return. But the next day, Harrison said “all of a sudden they put a sign up that said tomorrow you’re going back.”

Rich Hall Resident Assistant Kelsey Bryan, sophomore majoring in nutrition, said, “We were thinking there was going to be a big problem, like, ‘Oh no, we’re going to have to be here for the rest of the semester.’ But they got it taken care of and they got us in earlier than we expected, so that was nice.”

USU Housing Director Steve Jenson said part of the reason for the delay was the time involved in getting the state boiler inspector on campus and trying to find a similar boiler. Jenson said the inspector arrived Monday, but it took until Friday, Nov. 9 – the day residents returned home – to install the new boiler. The wait could have been longer too, had housing decided to wait for the exact match of the boiler to be shipped from New York, Jenson said. But it was decided against and a boiler was shipped from California and quickly installed.

“We got the residents back in there, and I think everything’s in good shape,” Jenson said.

But the week away from home required residents to go with a little less.

Bryan said about 36 residents, including herself, were relocated to the third floor of Richards Hall, which was completely empty due to renovations that took place earlier in the year. With just 10 minutes to gather supplies from their rooms in Rich Hall, residents arrived at Richards Hall with very little, Bryan said, but over the course of the week, they were allowed to return to Rich Hall with an RA to pick up things that were needed. Harrison said residents weren’t allowed to return to Rich Hall by themselves as all the outside locks were changed to maintain security.

Harrison, who was temporarily housed in the LLC, said his sister was relocated to Richards Hall, only had a couple of sheets the first night and had to return to Rich Hall the next day to get her blankets.

Spencer Kettenring, freshman majoring in mechanical engineering, said he was visiting his family when he learned of the explosion and relocation and didn’t arrive until early Monday morning. He said when he got to Richards Hall, he found his roommates had brought his television over because there wasn’t one in the rooms already. He said even though the free food at the Marketplace was good, the housing conditions weren’t what he expected.

“I’ve been in Motel 6’s that were nicer,” he said. “The mattresses were kind of gross. (There were) too many of us for one bathroom. I was mostly fine because I had my laptop and free food.”

Bryan said she thought her stay in Richards Hall wasn’t too bad, but she missed home.

“I think they were nice,” Bryan said of the rooms in Richards Hall. “They were clean. It was really nice being that close to campus for a while. But Rich Hall is home. It was nice to come home.”

Harrison said life in the LLC was enjoyable.

“The stay was great,” he said. “The rooms are really nice and furnished. The place is really, really nice. I would even say excessively nice. For me, it wasn’t so bad.”

Harrison said one difficult part about being away from home was not having access to all his school supplies when he needed them and not being able to turn in homework because the boiler blew up.

“I went to one of my classes and didn’t have the papers I needed that day. Thankfully, all my teachers were really great about compensating,” Harrison said. “Either they trusted me that I’d done my homework assignment or trusted me. All my teachers were accommodating. I know a lot of people had trouble because it was a busy weekend for homework. A lot people were pretty rushed about it.”

Eating arrangements were provided for students at either the Junction or Marketplace free of charge, as well as free parking passes for the length of time students were away, Jenson said.

“I think that is a very strong commitment we have to take the very best care of students,” Jenson said. “We feel that this is their home away from home. We want students to feel safe and that they’re well taken care of.”

Harrison said he feels he was treated very fairly by USU Housing.

“I think it shows that they really do take care of their students,” he said. “A lot of people were really grumpy about things. They put us up, they gave us three free meals a day and gave us free parking passes for the time we were there. I think they really went the extra mile to try to make this as comfortable as possible and get us back in as fast as possible too.”

-debrajoy.h@aggiemail.usu.edu