Renovations Underway on Ratliff Hall
Beginning in Fall 2024, Ratliff Hall will be lived in once more by students.
Renovations are underway on the long-vacant dormitory Ratliff Hall. The building closed in the summer of 2019 and is scheduled to reopen for the upcoming fall semester as a co-ed dormitory. The refurbishment is to provide the on-campus living space needed to accommodate the influx of students from the Speed Scholarship.
Alliant Construction was contracted for the project. The focus of the renovation is updating the bathrooms and adding study rooms.
“[The] bathrooms are outdated and need a fresh start,” said J.R. Wilbanks, Assistant Director of Residential Living. “[The] sinks in rooms are getting built-in cabinets around them. Study rooms are being created on the ends of buildings.”
Shortly after its closure, Ratliff became the space designated for students diagnosed with COVID-19 to stay on-campus during their quarantine. One of those students was 2023 graduate Garrett Posey. Posey was a sophomore studying Psychology when he was quarantined for two weeks in 2020.
“If you got COVID, you were given the option to come home for two weeks or stay in Ratliff,” Posey said. “I had a little brother who was playing football during his senior year. I didn’t want to come home and get him sick. I would have hated for him to miss his last games of football, so I stayed in Ratliff.”
Posey feels that the improvements being made are much needed, and that an upgraded Ratliff will be a great addition to the offerings for future residents.
“Honestly, I think it would be fun to be one of the first residents of a building that’s been discarded for five years,” Posey said. “It will be a whole new generation coming in with no experience with that building. They will have the opportunity to craft a whole new story and experience for everyone involved.”