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GREENSBORO — Students, staff and faculty at UNCG have been divided for weeks over what to do with the campus Quad. The seven buildings that make up the historic area are some of the oldest on campus — and in the worst shape.

The university is considering either gutting the dormitories for renovation or demolishing them to make way for modern ones. But some say that as the debate rages on, there’s a question that’s not being asked: Why are the Quad’s dorms in such bad shape to begin with?

The short answer: The dorms, built between 1919 and 1923 , have gone without $32 million  in maintenance, including  updates to bad wiring and plumbing  along with the lack of air conditioning, fire sprinklers and handicapped access.

The longer answer: Well, it’s complicated.

“There’s always a lot of deferred maintenance on any campus,” said Mary Hummel , the school’s director of Housing and Residence Life .

Hummel said UNCG’s housing department, like many nationwide, receives no money from the state or from tuition. It’s funded entirely on renting to students — something harder to do when old dorms have to compete with new, off- campus apartments. It also makes it difficult to maintain older dorms, which need a lot of work.

“With the Quad it’s been more complicated, because we’ve taken a look and decided not to do things piece by piece, but instead to try to do something significant with the area as a whole.”

The controversy is over what that “something significant” should be.

Many on-campus students say they would prefer newer, suite-style dorms with modern amenities over the two-student rooms with end-of-hall bathrooms shared by dozens.

Preservationists — including many students and alumni — say they’d like to keep as much of the old dorms and character of the Quad as possible.

Jo Leimenstoll , a professor in the school’s department of Interior Architecture , said she doesn’t think it has to be one or the other.

“I think that a lot of people are framing it as the choice between modern dorms and history,” Leimenstoll said. “But if you’re careful and creative, you can really have both.”

Leimenstoll’s department includes the state’s only graduate concentration in historical preservation. She says the Quad debate has her pointing her students to examples where historical dorms have become modern, blue-chip residence halls, like UNC-Chapel Hill’s Old East  and Old West  dorms.

“Those are some of the oldest dorms on campus, but with careful restoration they’ve become wonderful, 21st-century dorms and some of the most popular on campus,” Leimenstoll said. “You can also see that on UVA’s campus and N.C. State.”

Leimenstoll said as long as the university continues to see the Quad’s fate as an either/or proposition, it’s missing an opportunity to marry the cachet of historical buildings with modern amenities.

Some students agree.

“When you think about these dorms, they’re really one of the cornerstones on which the University was built,” said  Kurt Huizenga , a junior at UNCG who once lived just off the Quad. “You can build something new that looks like them, but it’s not the same thing. Or you could take something old and make it new. That’s always better.”

The school’s Board of Trustees met Thursday to discuss the Quad’s place in the school’s master plan. The board asked Chancellor Linda Brady to explore all options for the area before bringing a recommendation.

“I think there is going to be a lot more conversation before we recommend something,” Brady said. “There are a lot of options we’re just beginning to explore.”
 

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com