Even though the New Hall doesn’t have a name as exciting or historic as Seybert or Rall, there is nothing boring about the building.
With plenty of room for activities, New Hall caters to all students, whether they want a single room or want to have three other roommates.
So far, there have been mostly positive reviews about all aspects of the new residence hall.
“I love it. I am so lucky to be in New Hall, especially as a transfer,” said Teal Russeau, a junior transfer student from the College of DuPage who is staying in New Hall. “It’s crazy that I have my own bathroom and I got to skip the community bathroom ordeal.”
One positive aspect about staying in New Hall this year is that everything is brand new, as its name would suggest. Even when we enter the next school year, a new batch of students can look forward to the possibility of staying in newest residence hall at NCC.
When comparing New Hall to the rest of the residence halls, it is evident that it has a different aesthetic. When first entering the building, students are immediately welcomed by the smell of newly painted walls and freshly installed carpeting.
New Hall has an extremely modern look and feel to it. All of the walls are painted gray and the couches and chairs in the rooms have a very sleek look to them. Instead of the tile floors, like in the rest of the dorm rooms on campus, New Hall has heated dark hardwood floors throughout the entire room as well.
Russeau says, “The floors give the room a homier feel. My roommates and I just have to decorate the walls because they are a cold gray color.”
Another positive aspect of staying in New Hall is that it’s a suite-style hall. It is home to roughly 230 students staying on campus. Each room has a common room complete with a kitchen area and its own bathroom – no more walking down a hallway to have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Students still receive the basic furniture that comes with every dorm, including a desk, chair, bed, and dresser, but the New Hall offers more. The common area has a couch and two chairs, along with a flat screen TV on the wall, which has the options of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video or even cable. The bedroom itself provides ample closet space plus a digital thermostat. The kitchen has a refrigerator, an electric cooktop, a range hood and a sink. There is a laundry room on every floor as well.
As with anything new, this new residence hall is not perfect. There have been some issues that surfaced when the residents first started living there.
“We didn’t have hot water for a week, but they just fixed it, which is amazing,” said Russeau. “Also, our air conditioning sounded like there was a family of bears living in it for about a week too. That got fixed for a couple days but started up again.”
The air conditioner was also not cooling the rooms as well as it should have, but the maintenance staff has been helping to take care of all of the issues as they arise.
Another issue in this hall is that the printers have not been working with the computers. There have also been some complaints about the televisions having a spotty connection to the wireless internet and having a fuzzy screen while trying to watch cable.
Along with the residents of Residence Hall/Recreation Center, the students staying in New Hall have a little bit of a walk to get to Kaufman, the Cage or the Boilerhouse. On the other hand, New Hall is very close to Five Guys and Chipotle in case students are in the mood for something off campus.
New Hall comes equipped with everything a student needs to get through the school year and then some. If students are looking to get out of the dorm and community bathroom life, then they should definitely consider New Hall as a housing option for the next school year.
