Facilities officials report that routine maintenance to Sullivan and Lee residence halls will continue until the buildings are demolished in five to seven years.

According to Associate Director for University Housing Facilities Barry Olson, any definitive decision about construction work is still a long way off, and officials will have a better idea after the results of a housing study are published in mid-December.

“Sullivan and Lee residence halls are slated for demolition in about five to seven years,” Olson said. “It’s still very early in the process, so there is still no specific date set for the possible demolition.”

Olson said it’s likely construction will be postponed to the latest possible date.

“When examining a building’s longevity and life cycle, you usually try to get more years out of it than less,” Olson said. “These buildings were constructed in the late 50s to 60s, and they tend to have aging issues.”

He said, until final decisions are made, facilities will continue to maintain these buildings to keep them up to the department’s standards.

“If some facilities problems need to be addressed, we are taking care of it,” Olson said. “We aren’t doing any facelifts; we are just taking care of the buildings, so they last to the end of their life cycles.”

Olson said students should report any problems they have in their rooms or suites, using the new online system.

“I encourage everyone to let us know through the online work order system, and if that issue is not addressed, please call the facilities office,” Olson said.

Amanda Sain, a sophomore in biomedical engineering and resident of Sullivan Hall, said she has had problems in her suite this semester.

“We placed a work order about our floor leaking, and it took them over a month to fix it,” Sain said. “These buildings are old and there are reoccurring problems with the plumbing, the lights, and the floor and ceiling tiles.”

Sain said demolishing the residence halls is a good idea because they have been around for a long time.

“I know people whose parents lived in these buildings when they went to school here,” Sain said

Zachary Kenney, a sophomore in computer science, said as a resident of Lee Residence Hall this semester, he hasn’t experienced too many problems.

“The beginning of the year was the only time we ever had any problems in here, and they took care of it fairly quickly,” Kenney said. “When I lived in Sullivan last year, though, our ceiling was falling apart.”

Olson said in all renovation efforts, both now and in the future, the goal is to make the residence hall an enjoyable place for students to live.

“There comes a time in a lot of buildings when we need different things out of the building that we can’t get,” Olson said. “We want these residence halls to be a place all our students love to stay and would love to stay for four years.”