Brooks Hall to close for spring semester

Brooks Hall is shutting its doors in December. The hall will be closing to reduce the cost of operation.
“Brooks is a very high cost building,” said Vice President of Administration and Finance Dale Grant. “So being very cautious, [the cost to run Brooks Hall] is about $75,000 a year.”
The college expects to cut about half of that operational cost in half, by closing Brooks next semester.
“We would safe half of that, $37,500, and that’s not including desk workers in the calculation,” said Grant.
Students living in Brooks have been asked to move to other five resident’s halls on campus- Edna Work Hall, Kent Hall, High-Rise, Eagle Ridge, and Andrews Hall.
“It is done semester by semester, and I would just like to point out that this is not the first time this has happened,” said Grant. “We narrowed it down to occupancy in residence halls, and because Brooks is the most expensive one to run, that’s the one that we decided to close.”
If there is a rise in the number of incoming freshmen next year, there is a possibility that Brooks Hall will open again.
“It’s not something that is unheard of. Brooks just gets selected because it’s a high dollar building,” said Grant. “Part of it is, it’s old, and it’s not very tight. There are all of the window air conditioners, and it does not run off of central systems. And I believe that the hot water is gas fired, instead of steamed, so that affects the cost.”
Resident Hall Directors, and the housing office have been working closely with students to relocate them before the end of the semester. As of now, the future of Brooks hall is unclear.