Funnelle Hall is going to be temporarily closed for renovations after the fall semester.
The renovations will keep the building closed for the spring 2020 semester, and it is expected to reopen for the fall 2020 semester.
Funnelle Hall has already been partially emptied, with students from floors seven through nine being moved into other residence halls. The remaining students will not have to move until the end of the semester, after finals week ends on Dec. 14.
The renovations to Funnelle Hall will consist of gutting and rebuilding the bathrooms. The construction team will also be fixing the floors, walls and ceilings and will make upgrades to the exhaust, ventilation and lighting systems.
“First is to convert the bathrooms … to individual bathrooms,” Shaun Crisler, assistant vice president for residence life and housing, said. “We’ll be working on the walls, floors and some of the ceiling finishing’s … Exhaust and ventilation and lighting, so there are a number of renovations that will be student facing, but also a number of them behind the scenes.”
Due to the renovations, Funnelle Hall was not filled to capacity this semester. The upper three floors of the building were closed after the end of the summer term, and rooms on each floor were left empty.
“All of the students who moved into Funnelle knew that the building was closing, and so we didn’t fill the building to capacity. There’s probably only maybe a hundred students in Funnelle right now,” Crisler said.
Crisler said that renovations are important, and he’s happy that the school is able to invest money into its residence halls, as many colleges are unable to do so.
In the SUNY system, academic halls are usually renovated with money provided by New York state’s government. However, residential halls must be renovated using money received by the school from its residential students.
“I think renovations in our residence halls is always a good thing,” Crisler said. “I think there are a number of institutions that can’t always quite afford renovations, so the fact that we’ve been able to save up and put money into Funnelle is important as we move through all of our buildings.”
For Edito Ramos Palacios, an Oswego State sophomore who lives in the building, the transition of the bathrooms from group bathrooms to individual bathrooms is exciting.
“I want to see how the bathrooms turn out because I think that’s the main thing they’re doing, just the bathrooms, but I’m really excited about that,” Palacios said. “I’m really excited about that because you’re going to get to have your own little shower bathroom area that you can go in and lock the door and do whatever you have to do.”
Crisler said that investments made by the Residence Life and Housing department are planned out to improve the living conditions and make students more comfortable.
“The purpose of this renovation is really to make sure students have a better living experience in the halls,” Crisler said.
The Oswegonian file photo from 2018
