After nearly a year of renovation, Cayuga Hall of College-in-the-Woods opened to residents this semester with private bathrooms, overhead lighting and infrastructure updates.
The renovations mark the first major construction updates to the residence hall since it first opened to students in 1972.
Jasper Baur, a resident of Cayuga Hall and a sophomore majoring in geology, believes the new features and renovations have made it one of the premier spots to live on campus.
“I like [the renovations] a lot; it maintained the [College-in-the-Woods] aura, yet also improved the quality of life,” Baur said. “The overhead lights, for example, just brighten up the whole room, and it definitely just looks and feels nicer. The bathrooms too are exemplary, and they’re probably the best bathrooms on campus, even better than the ones in Newing or Dickinson.”
JJ Brice, associate director of operations and crisis for Binghamton University Residential Life, acts as the primary liaison to Physical Facilities for the upkeep of the residential buildings. Brice was one of the primary departmental representatives involved in the project planning meetings with Physical Facilities for the Cayuga Hall renovation. He said he believes the changes will improve the quality of life for residents.
“A lot of the choices we made were influenced by the student experience and feedback we received, including the addition of overhead lighting, furniture choices, brighter finishes and private bathrooms,” Brice said. “The electrical service of the [College-in-the-Woods] buildings was not made to accommodate the usage of modern college students, so the new panels and wiring are essential to providing for the draw of laptops, TVs, video game consoles, a myriad of chargers and other electronics.”
The building now offers corridor private bathrooms in a cluster of three per wing instead of common bathrooms with an assigned gender, which are still present in Seneca Hall, Oneida Hall and Onondaga Hall of College-in-the-Woods.
Other updates include new furniture in every bedroom and lounge, overhead lighting in every student room and new appliances in the building’s kitchen on the third floor. Additionally, the flooring, wireless access points and laundry room were all remodeled or upgraded. All rooms were repainted and the bedroom doors were replaced to be brighter in color.
Cayuga Hall is the first of four buildings to undergo renovation in College-in-the-Woods; there is a tentative plan to complete renovations in all buildings by fall 2020. Seneca Hall is currently closed to students for renovations that are scheduled to begin at the end of next month. Brice said the University and the Residential Life Office strive to make Binghamton a more comfortable place to live and learn, and that he believed the renovations worked toward that goal.
“I believe that Cayuga is a far better place to study and engage in community-building for our residents today than it was in fall of 2016 when we began work on the building,” Brice said.
Julia Carmel, a junior majoring in English, has lived in College-in-the-Woods for the entirety of her time as an undergraduate and currently works as a resident assistant in Cayuga Hall. She said she is pleased with the renovations because they provide much-needed benefits to an aging community.
“The renovations have been great; they make the building nicer, but don’t take away from the College-in-the-Woods essence,” Carmel said. “Having three individual, gender-inclusive bathrooms also splits up the floor in a better way, since it doesn’t have to be all one gender in the doubles.”
Carmel said she wished the renovation included College-in-the-Woods’ fire safety.
“They only have fire doors throughout all of [College-in-the-Woods] and no fire sprinklers,” she said. “Even in the newly renovated Cayuga they don’t have them, which is odd.”