Students walk through the lobby in Kalapuya Ilihi. RAs across campus are bringing up disparities between dorm culture and how that affects their workloads. (Molly McPherson/Daily Emerald)
Kalapuya Ilihi Residence Hall, a newer dormitory at the University of Oregon which opened its doors in 2017, has been temporarily shut down for the 2023-2024 school year. The hall is expected to re-open in the fall of 2024.
University officials claim the reason for the closure was because of cracks in several of the walls throughout the dormitory.
The expenses put into initially building Kalapuya Ilihi totaled $45 million, according to NorthWest Engineering, the construction company which completed the project.
However, the total cost of the hall will increase due to future repairs ahead.
“Once it has been determined how the work will be completed, a repair budget will be developed,” Angela Seydel, a UO spokesperson, said in an email to the Emerald. “The design, site preparation, permitting and cost estimations should be completed by fall.”
With the temporary closing of Kalapuya Ilihi, many resident assistants who were assigned to work at the hall have been forced to find new dormitories to work at for the upcoming school year.
“Out of the blue, we got an email that Kalapuya would be closed for offline repairs, that all the ARC [Academic Residential Community] RA’s would be replaced, and that we would get more information about our new hall assignments at a later date,” Avery Clifford, an ARC resident assistant who was previously assigned to work at Kalapuya Ilihi, said.
Clifford was reassigned to the “New Residence Hall” located on Agate and 15th street but raised concerns about where incoming freshmen who planned to live at Kalapuya will be transferred to.
“We were told to prepare to have triples again,” Clifford said. “Because this past year every room that could be made a triple was triple.”
Clifford points to the dorm housing shortage that occurred within the most recent school year due to a record-setting enrollment rate that exceeded the number of students UO Housing could hold.
During the beginning of the school year, students were forced to live in the lounge rooms of dormitories because of the lack of dorms available, and some dorms that were designed to fit two students instead were converted to fit three.
The size of incoming freshmen classes has increased each year since 2019, beginning with the now-graduated class of 2023. The 2023 class size was 4,458 students. The most recent freshman class of 2026 holds 5,348 students, almost one thousand more students than the recently-graduated class.
Payton Stanley, an incoming freshman, was looking forward to her time at Kalapuya in the school year to come. But after being relocated to the “New Residence Hall” –– the same hall Clifford was reassigned to –– Stanley’s previous excitement about Kalapuya was transferred over to her new, relocated hall.
“When looking at everything in perspective, you’re still gonna be on campus,” Stanley said. “It’s just a different part.”
The “New Residence Hall” is located directly across from Hayward Field and is set to hold roughly 705 students. Construction is set to end within the month of August.
Stanley’s Academic Residential Community, which focuses on media and social action, was also relocated to the “New Residence Hall”.
“We’re all kinda stoked. It’s in more of an essential area, in the middle of campus,” Stanley said. “I feel like [there’s] more benefits to that. To be able to be by the Recreation Center and Unthank.”
