Storms Hall residents will not have the opportunity to return to their home away from home next year.

Last semester, the Department of Residence made the decision to close the building at the end of this academic year. The Department of Residence sent letters of notice about the closing of the building to Storms Hall residents at the end of fall semester.

Knapp and Storms Halls are both slated for eventual demolition because of significant deferred maintenance, said Kate Bruns, communications specialist for the Department of Residence. Due to insufficient student interest in Towers housing, Storms Hall will be kept empty next year, she said. It will be demolished in the summer of 2004, and Knapp Hall will follow in the summer of 2005, according to the residence department’s Master Plan.

“Traditionally, [Knapp and Storms] haven’t been halls students have demanded and our feedback form indicates that most students don’t like the Knapp-Storms Hall type of housing,” she said.

Storms students and staff said the hall will be missed next year.

“I am sad to see Storms go. I’ve loved my experience here at Storms,” said Christy Barnd, Storms Hall director. “I love the building and the residents, but at the same time I understand and agree with the reasons for closing it.”

Other halls will be demolished as well, including Westgate Hall, which will be torn down this summer. Helser Hall will follow soon after. Demolishing these halls instead of renovating them will save the residence department $22.3 million, Bruns said.

“The demolition of these halls was determined to be the most cost-effective solution,” she said, adding that the construction of buildings in the Union Drive Association will likely appeal to new students.

“Wallace and Wilson, which do not have the deferred maintenance issues that Knapp and Storms have, were renovated to be more desirable to upper-division students who want to live in a residence hall community like Towers.”

Bruns said there is a new trend in research on residence hall life: Apartment-style rooms are more attractive to students.

“The one-size-fits-all scheme wasn’t working and students are voicing their preference for more suite-styled rooms,” she said.

Ben Moyer, president of Gilman House in Storms Hall, said he’d rather live in Storms than in other residence halls. This is his third year living in the building. “I think that by closing Storms, it’s the university’s way of forcing people to move to UDA. I don’t think that it’s much of a coincidence that they open the new UDA buildings the same time they close Storms,” said Moyer, sophomore in computer engineering. Bruns refuted this theory, saying UDA is primarily designated as a neighborhood for first-year students.

“Based on historical demand and return rates, the department anticipates that all students who wish to return to Storms or identical housing will be able to be housed in Knapp Hall,” she said. “Furthermore, it should be reiterated that no student at Iowa State is required to live on campus, so the Department of Residence can’t force anyone to live anywhere.”

The majority of the 436 students living in Storms are freshmen and sophomores, according to the residence department’s Web site at www.iastate.edu/~dor/. Options available to Storms residents for next year include UDA, Richardson Court Association, Frederiksen Court, Wallace-Wilson Halls or Knapp Hall.

“Storms residents will be given priority in choosing where they want to live next year, due to not being given the option of returning to their residence hall,” Bruns said.

Storms’ closing will not affect students who wish to return to Knapp, she said.

Dining Service for Towers residents will be relocated to Wallace-Wilson next year, said Michelle Rupert, assistant dining manager of Knapp-Storms.

She said Knapp-Storms Dining Service employees will be given the opportunity to retain their jobs and will be relocated.

“Most of the Knapp-Storms Dining Service employees will go to Wallace-Wilson Dining Service next year,” Rupert said.

Storms residence assistants will also be given the opportunity to come back next year, Barnd said.

Randy Alexander, director of the residence department, was unavailable for comment.