Coming fall 2016, Old Digman Hall will reopen with all-new renovations for an all-new class of Bearcats.

Although the buildings in the retired Dickinson Community are now mostly used for classes, Residential Life (ResLife) hopes to open up Old Digman to compensate for the housing options lost by the renovations to Hinman College and College-in-the-Woods (CIW). ResLife plans to renovate all of CIW and Hinman over the next 10 years by renovating one building per year. The renovation of Cayuga Hall in CIW will begin next year.

Suzanne Howell, director of ResLife, said that the reopening of the building is in response to the need for housing that required ResLife to re-open Cayuga after initial plans to begin renovations in fall 2015.

“Bringing Old Digman back into the housing mix will help alleviate the loss of beds necessitated by the renovation schedule and provide us some flexibility,” Howell said.

The building will house 140 residents and will be open exclusively to freshmen. It will have double rooms with private bathrooms located across the hall, which one to two other doubles will share. The building will officially be a part of the Dickinson Community, but will have individual building traditions, such as the theme of wellness.

Howell said that the theme will enable students with an interest in fitness and health to live with students with common interests, as they are working toward a partnership with Campus Recreation to have classes taught at the studios in Old Digman.

“It will be a theme-based hall around wellness,” Howell said. “In keeping with the healthy campus initiatives, it will have yoga and meditation rooms and studio space.”

According to Dan Greenberg, a residential advisor in Newing College’s Bingham Hall and a sophomore majoring in accounting, community themes can help students enjoy where they live.

“Every community is different in its own way, so if you want to incorporate wellness and health, I know a lot of people are into that,” Greenberg said. “Old Digman is close to the gym, too.”

Ron Katz, an undeclared freshman, said he recognized the need for renovation in some of the older communities, but he would still have made the choice to live in Hinman as-is.

“I personally wouldn’t want to live in [Old Dickinson] because I like the proximity of Hinman to my classes,” Katz said. “In terms of the wellness theme, I can just go to the gym so I don’t see a need for a wellness community, but I think there are people that would enjoy and benefit from it.”

Students such as Rachel Scheckman, an undeclared sophomore, said they felt that renovations are also needed in both CIW and Hinman and that as an incoming freshman, they would have considered living in Old Digman Hall.

“I would want to live there because it’s right by the gym, and all these students are also freshmen, so they’re all coming in at the same point where I’m coming in,” Scheckman said. “It would help [freshmen] meet more people, and freshmen want to make friends.”

ResLife said that renovations are currently going well and according to plan, and they anticipate adhering to their schedule.