Ten of the remaining 14 “old” Heritage Halls buildings will be torn down and construction will start on four “new” Heritage Halls buildings, which will start phase three of on-campus housing construction. The four remaining halls will be Fox, Harris, Felt and Broadbent Halls.
One recently built New Heritage building will be open for Winter 2014 and will house female residents. The residents will move from four old buildings into one new building.
“I’ve grown really attached (to my room), and I’m going to miss it,” said Ashley North, a linguistics major from Mesa, Ariz. “But, I’m excited to live somewhere where I won’t find spiders in my cups.”
Students currently living in Old Heritage will have to move dorms during and after finals week.
“We have notified all of the students impacted by this change,” said Julie Franklin, director of Residence Life at BYU. “We are doing everything we can to assist these students throughout this transition, including making sure they have time to study for, and complete, their finals before moving.”
Students are excited to transition to new buildings, but it will add extra stress to an already busy period.
“The campus housing hasn’t said how they will help us in the moving processes except that we won’t have our last cleaning check,” said Matt Kastner, a mathematics major from Napa, Calif. “It will definitely put stress on all the moving students during finals week.”
Because the only building opening will house females, males who currently live in Old Heritage will be scattered around the new buildings.
“Many of the people housed in Maeser will be ‘just filling spots,’ but many roommate pairs will be staying together,” Kastner said. “In all seriousness, I’m confused on where the students who are leaving on missions will go (during finals week) and whose spots we will be filling.”
Ward dynamics may also change for freshman wards.
“My building is moving as a unit, but as for wards, we’re not sure we get to stay in same ward,” North said. “If I have to leave my ward, it will be really sad because I really love them all.”
According to a press release from Residence Life, the 320 students who live in the halls to be torn down will be provided housing at the same rate they are currently paying.
As for the four remaining old heritage buildings, BYU will continue to use them for upper-classmen housing. About 325 upper-class students live in this community.
