Southeast to remove cotton-like material on Dearmont dorm ceilings

~ The renovation project will include new carpet and furniture.

Southeast Missouri State University plans to remove the dirty, cotton-like material from the ceilings of the Dearmont residence hall this summer as part of a half-million-dollar project to spruce up the building, school officials said Monday.

Once the material is removed, the ceilings will be painted. Walls also will get a fresh coat of paint. New carpet will be installed in the commons areas and new furniture will be installed, said Dr. Dennis Holt, vice president of administration and enrollment management.

The project comes at a time when the university plans to raise room and board charges for all its student housing, including Dearmont.

The board of regents is scheduled to vote Wednesday on proposed room and board increases. The meeting starts at 2 p.m. in Dempster Hall's Glenn Auditorium.

School officials said the ceiling material in Dearmont needs to be removed as part of an effort to improve the building's interior appearance.

Applied to the concrete ceilings for soundproofing in the 1980s, small pieces of the material have fallen onto students and their clothes and belongings in recent years.

Complaints about ceiling

Dearmont resident Charlene Latham complained about the ceiling material last fall. "It is dirty and it is falling," said Latham. She covered the ceiling of her dorm room with cut-up plastic trash bags taped together to keep the debris from falling on her.

Holt said at the time that the university had three options: Raze the building and replace it with a new residence hall, renovate it or close it down as a residence hall and consider other uses for the building.

Holt and university president Dr. Ken Dobbins justified the planned renovations, saying they expect to use Dearmont for student housing for at least the next five to 10 years.

The 47-year-old building is structurally sound, Holt said.

While the ceiling material is an eyesore, it isn't a health concern, Holt said. He said the material doesn't contain asbestos. But, he said, it needs to removed. "It is clearly unpleasant to have that stuff falling," Holt said. "It's aggravating."

Southeast plans to hire a contractor to remove the ceiling material. Since the material will have to be scraped off the ceiling, Holt said the work will have to be done within environmental guidelines just in case any asbestos in the building structure is accidentally exposed, Holt said.

"When you're doing deep scraping, you don't know what you are going to hit," he said.

The entire renovation project, including new carpet and furniture, is scheduled to start following the end of the spring semester. It will be completd in time for students to return to the residence hall for the start of classes this fall, Holt said.

The university wants to raise campus room and board charges by 5 percent on average for the 2007 to 2008 school year. Students will see 8 percent increases in housing charges at Myers and Cheney residence halls where fees previously had been far lower than for other residence halls, officials said.

With room and board charges combined, the cost would range from $6,845 for students living in Towers North and West to $5,300 for students living at Dearmont. Dearmont is the only residence hall that isn't air conditioned.

The university will use money from a fund balance to pay for the renovations to Dearmont. But the room and board fee increases will help Southeast cover campus housing operating costs, Holt said.

The increase in room and board charges across campus would cover increased costs for utilities, maintenance, installation of additional security cameras and pay raises for staff in the university's residence life department, Holt said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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