Students who intended to live in the Trollinger House this year were in for a surprise when they arrived on campus late last month.
Only three students signed up to live in Trollinger House, which has been undergoing renovations since the beginning of the summer, prompting Elon University to close the house to residents.
“Safety was the main reason for the decision,” said MarQuita Barker, associate director of Residence Life. “There are 15 spaces, but it would only be three students and no staff.”
Sophomore Mack White, one of the three students who planned to live in Trollinger, moved in a week early and found the rooms being used by students waiting for renovations to the International Pavilion to be completed.
“I went to Moseley for early arrival and was handed my key for Trollinger House,” White said. “I drove over to Trollinger with my parents and entered the atrium to go to my room. I put the key in the door, and when I opened the door, I saw a room that was already decorated and had clothes strewn across the floor and papers everywhere.”
White called sophomore James Crooks, another intended resident of Trollinger House, to alert him of the change. Crooks said he had gotten a phone call from housing operations informing him he was being moved to Colonnades and explaining why the university closed Trollinger this year.
"As for a formal email or other form of communication discussing my room assignment, I never received one,” Crooks said. “The only reason I was able to know where I had been moved was by going onto my OnTrack profile.”
Barker said the decision to not allow the three students to live in Trollinger House was made by the upper level Residence Life staff at early arrival time.
“All summer, we’ve been trying to recruit more students to live there,” Barker said. “Some students planned to live with their friend, so they would say, ‘If my friend won’t move, I won’t move.’”
Both White and Crooks planned to live in single rooms in Trollinger House and are now living in singles in Colonnades, which Barker said is the same cost. She added that not having any students in Trollinger House while the renovations for both residential and programming spaces are being completed could be a good thing.
“It will give us more time to finish and get out of the house,” Barker said. “Students won’t have to hear banging and building while they’re living there.”
White and Crooks both said they are happy living in Colonnades, but were annoyed to find out the change in their living space so close to move-in, especially because the two living spaces are on opposite sides of campus.
“Colonnades is lovely," White said. "It’s just extremely inconvenient considering as a communications student that it’s relatively far from McEwen."
Trollinger House is still available as a housing option for students next year if enough students choose to live there.