Continuing construction on Carrollton Hall and Hurricane Katrina’s devastation forced Residential Life to scramble for permanent, on-campus housing for students. Several/some students are filling the common areas of the incomplete Carrollton Hall.

Robert Reed, director of Residential Life, said the department is taking care of the situation. During Christmas break, Reed and the Res Life staff hustled to get the common areas furnished, expecting a large surge of homeless students.

“I still don’t know how we did it all,” Reed said.

Resident assistant Nolan Hughes, computer science sophomore, said he appreciated the hard work to accommodate students.

“I think it’s very kind of the university to have bought them all new furniture,” Hughes said.

Reed said these living arrangements will not last much longer. The students living in common areas will move to the second floor when construction is complete. The move is projected to happen in February.

“I can deal with the construction, but I would like the living room back. I feel sorry for the guy who has to live there,” said Stephen Ware, computer science and philosophy sophomore.

Having a roommate in the common areas does not bother some residents as much as the construction noise does.

“My first day back, I woke up at 8 o’clock in the morning from construction noise. It was like a welcome back to Loyola present,” Megan Stewart, music performance sophomore, said.

“The construction noise hasn’t bothered me till a week ago,” said Stephanie Bell, a criminal justice and psychology sophomore. “… It seems like they are right over my room.”

Six years after its production, mold found its way through Carrollton’s construction. In January 2004, Loyola filed a lawsuit against the construction, insurance and engineering companies that were involved in building the residence hall-MAPP Construction, Inc; Travelers Property & Casualty Insurance Company’ Eskew + A Professional Corporation; and Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, Architecture & Engineering, P.C. were named as defendants. That lawsuit is still pending.

The building’s due date for finishing construction has been pushed back multiple times due to mold testing, litigation, lack of labor and hurricanes Ivan and Katrina.

Although residents of Carrollton Hall have played musical chairs in the past, Res Life staff is working hard to accommodate everyone, Reed said. He said he did not know how many students are living in Carrollton Hall living rooms.

“We’ve been doing three months of work in one,” Reed said. The difficulties in on-campus housing have added more stress to the staff.

Reed said he lost his own home.

“We know there is no privacy, but it was only going to be temporary,” Reed said.

This isn’t the first time students have had to live in the common areas of Carrollton, Reed said. When Carrollton Hall first opened in 1999, Biever Hall was undergoing renovations and students were faced with the same living arrangements.

Michelle Lopez can be reached at [email protected]

Additional reporting by Tara Templeton.