What started as a maintenance project to lighten the interior of the residence halls has turned into a quest by 40 men in Friley Hall to save their blue walls.

Daniel Collingwood, resident assistant for Bennett House in Friley, said the floor’s dark blue walls have always been a mark of pride for the men on the floor.

“There’s very few houses that have any color besides white as their primary color. I can’t think of any. I’d say they [the residents] are very attached to their walls,” he said.

Floor members are so attached that all 40 have signed a petition to be sent to various department heads that states, “The Bennett House requests that the Department of Residence allow Bennett House to keep the same level of blue that is currently the primary color in the hallway paint …”

The controversial walls are a medium blue background with a design of gray rocks speckled with white and blue.

About a week ago, Collingwood said he learned that several houses were going to be eligible for new paint and new carpet.

“I knew that we might possibly get new carpet and paint, but I didn’t know what that would entail and I didn’t know how strongly my residents would be opposed to it …,” he said.

Leroy Brown, facilities manager for UDA, said the maintenance department is trying to improve the appearance of many hallways in residence halls this summer by lightening and cleaning them up.

“We really want to clean it [UDA] up and make it look nicer,” Brown said.

So a group of people from the residence halls walked through the halls last week to decide which floors needed repainted and the carpet replaced, Brown said. As far as Bennett House goes, Brown said officials just want to try and lighten up the blue background.

“Bennett House has the dark blue, a lot of graphics. When we walked through, we recognized the graphics as being unique,” Brown said. “We just want to try and lighten up the blue a bit.”

Collingwood said the walls aren’t that dark and a new paint job won’t make much of a difference.

” … it doesn’t look so dark in here. The blue that we have now is not that dark and painting will not [significantly make a difference],” he said.

Wesley Reynolds, a sophomore in architecture and vice president of the floor, said he has lived on the floor for four semesters and has gotten attached to the walls.

“I was really disappointed. I’ve seen so many other floors painted a drab white … They [university officials] say it’s more depressing to see our dark blue, but we said no way. The white is much more depressing,” Reynolds said.

Mike Pogge, a Bennett House resident, said the men on the floor want to maintain tradition and preserve the blue walls.

“Our walls have been blue now for a very long time, probably 20 years. They’re part of what makes the Bennett House the Bennett House,” Pogge said.

Pogge said the university did not contact residents about the change. Instead, many floor members learned about the repainting when several design students, who were going to repaint it, were brought to the floor.

“It would be like the city coming into your neighborhood and saying we don’t like the color of your house, so we’re going to come in and paint all of them a different color,” Pogge said.

No decisions have been finalized, university officials caution.