Author: Soo Jin Kim
The newest Occidental residence hall, currently known as Rangeview Hall, officially opened to students on January 19. Rangeview Hall boasts, among other things, a fitness room, recreation center, laundry rooms for each floor, a computer lab and classrooms. Rangeview will have an open house for the Oxy community on February 1.
Director of Communications Jim Tranquada is enthusiastic about the potential the hall holds for the College. “The general review is positive so far,” he said. “Maybe in part because [the hall] is new and shiny.” He added that with the new residence hall, the campus can now hold 10 percent more students in the residence halls (70 percent to 80 percent of students, overall). “Oxy is a residential college. Living on campus is an important part of the Oxy experience,” Tranquada said.
Students have described the new hall as an apartment complex, with its high security doors and residents’ private bathrooms. Director of Residence Life and Housing Services Kecia Baker said the new Hall was intended to be a “different type of community.” She said it was meant to be “an upperclassmen hall, intended [for] more independent living. The doors in apartment complexes can’t be left opened, the way res hall doors are left opened. It was never meant to be a traditional res hall.”
For Heidi Pang (junior), Rangeview seems “a little bit too fancy.” She added that due to the hall’s structure, anyone walking past can see inside her room, so she and her roommate are forced to close the blinds every day. She said this is also a problem for students whose rooms are near the archways linking the towers together: “You can just look in and see everything.”
Pang also said the location places students away from everything-with the hall’s kitchen off-limits to all students, residents are forced to make the trip to the Marketplace or the Cooler. As of yet, there are no vending machines nearby.
Due to the hall’s size and structure, residents are finding it hard to meet each other. “At least before [moving to Rangeview], students had to see each other in the bathrooms and say ‘hi,'” Pang said. “But here, it’s not possible because of the private bathrooms.”
Rangeview Hall Resident Advisor Amy Mahanay (sophomore) is happy with the new hall. She said the highlights of the new dorm are the new computers in the computer lab, the new washing machines and the private bathrooms. She said she had not expected the hall to be “as nice as it is.”
Until a donor can be found, the new residence hall will continue to be called “Rangeview Hall,” after the road on which it’s located. Tranquada said the College is actively pursuing potential donors, including through a dinner held at Rangeview on January 18. It is a “wonderful opportunity to raise money,” said Tranquada. “Hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars [could be raised].”
If a donor does not place his or her name on the hall, he or she can be honored by having public spaces in the hall named after them (like the fitness room, lounges, courtyards, etc.).
Residents have expressed concern with the hall, including problems with the hot water pump, door locks malfunctioning and a report that the garage gate locks automatically when the fire alarm goes off.
“I don’t know of any safety problems,” Baker said. She also called the story of the garage gate locking “not accurate.”
Baker said Rangeview is full, with only one empty room that has already been assigned to a student from Chilcott. “First preference [for Rangeview rooms] has been given to residents living in Chilcott because of the noise coming from Erdman construction,” she said.
Baker said Bell-Young, Erdman and Wylie will be due for completion sometime in late July, with the first few weeks of August serving as a grace period. The halls will have the same card-swipe system that Newcomb and Rangeview have. They will retain their older-looking building structures, but, as Baker said, will be “fresh in the inside.” Tranquada said the three residence halls will undergo plumbing and wiring renovations, have new air-conditioners installed and be painted inside and out.
“It will be ready after summer,” he said.
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