A couple weeks ago, I posted about my (and many others’) anxieties in moving out of Pray-Harrold and into the unknown that is Hoyt Hall, which is part of a dorm complex built around the same time as Pray-Harrold itself. Well, I and many of my colleagues have moved in, and the verdict so far is that it’s not bad. It’s even kind of good, a not insignificant improvement over where we were.
It’s not all good, but let me start with the positive:
My office in Hoyt is what used to be a (I assume) a room for two, which is considerably larger than my interior Pray-Harrold office. Plus it has a window with a rather nice view. Plus it has a bathroom. Plus it has a considerable amount of storage, more than I could ever use. And, surprisingly, it seems reasonably clean too.
I don’t know if this speaks to the quality of Hoyt or the crappiness of Pray-Harrold, but it is what it is.
All is not perfect, of course. Some of my colleagues showed up in their Hoyt offices to find all of their packed boxes just as they left them in Pray-Harrold, while others showed up in Hoyt to find nothing from Pray-Harrold. Personally, I was missing a recliner and an office chair. I actually went and found my recliner in a lounge on the sixth floor (I shoved it into the elevator and then into my office on the eighth floor), and the people from the company in charge of the move said they will come up with an office chair for me. So really, I have few complaints, at least so far.
I’m still concerned about what it’ll be like to be on the eighth floor when it’s 90 degrees outside, I’m not looking forward to dealing with the printers and copier on the first floor, and the internet networking is still going to be way too slow. We’ll see if students will actually be willing to come and find us over in the dorms, and there will of course be other problems that will crop up. But still, a pleasant surprise so far.
Incidentally, there’s still no sign of any construction at Pray-Harrold. I recall the construction people talking about how important it was that everyone was out of the building by the end of the month since they would start “staging” construction equipment to start the work.
Any other moving stories?
The rooms in Hoyt Hall were most recently single occupancy rooms. At one time, the rooms were double occupancy and a few were even triple occupancy. You’ll want to hold your office hours in the SC when it gets hotter than 75, or you’ll melt.