New residence hall will leave Juniper empty and, for right now, purposeless

With the creation of a new residence hall at Central Oregon Community College, the question on students who reside in the current dorms is, what will happen to Juniper Hall?

Now that COCC is moving forward with creating new building to house more students the fate of Juniper Hall is left uncertain this according to Alicia Moore, Dean of students at COCC.

“The college hasn’t made any decisions as to what’s going to happen to Juniper Hall,” Moore said, “But we do know that it won’t continue to be a student housing facility.”

COCC has decided that since Juniper Hall is an older building, and not ADA accessible, it will be discontinued as a housing option for future students.

“We do have a long brainstorm list. People informally or randomly would send ideas to me, or Matt McCoy, but we haven’t even begun to compile the list in any formal way,” Moore said.

Matt McCoy, VP of administration for COCC, adds that Juniper Hall might be “dedicated” to a program at the school.

“What the college is going to use [Juniper Hall] for has not been determined. Possibilities could include dedicating it to program use, office space, storage space, conference rooms, studio space, or other uses,” McCoy said.

Whether Juniper Hall is closed down or reestablished as something else, the costs of doing that is never far from the minds of administration.

“Whatever the use, there are likely to be costs associated with repurposing the building. Some uses would require more extensive remodel work than other uses and therefore are more expensive,” McCoy said.

Living on campus, according to Moore and McCoy, helps the student succeed in life and education by encouraging the student to “build connections which contribute to student success.”

“What we see for students who live on campus is that they tend to have higher GPA, higher retention, and higher completion rate than those who do not,” Moore said. “The reason is that students who are physically on campus have better connection with other students, faculty and resources.”

Brayan Gonzalez | The Broadside
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