BLUEFIELD, Va. -In 2023, the Bluefield University dormitory, “Alumni Hall” caught fire in one of its rooms. Soon after, the building was decommissioned and has been closed ever since.
However, the university’s president, Dr. Steve Peterson, says the damage done by the fire wasn’t the main reason for the closure, but was an opportunity to improve the dorm. There are plans in place to redo every bedroom and bathroom and fix up the exterior as well, potentially making it even better than it was before the fire.
“When you look at it now, I hate to even say, it’s a little bit of an eyesore, so when I look at it, I have a vision, I think to myself, ‘What if it was the nicest dormitory on campus?’ And so, we’re going to work towards that, but definitely improving it and really the function of it. It’s forty-six beds, so that allows us to expand out on-campus enrollment…” says Dr. Peterson.
To help fund the renovation, they approached the Hugh I. Shott Jr. Foundation, who provided a $4000,000 matching grant, after the university explained that their growing enrollment numbers required the expansion. The goal is to have part of dorm building occupied by this fall semester to meet the expected number of incoming students.
However, the additional rooms don’t just mean extra space, getting this dorm online will allow them to move students there while they perform renovations to other buildings on campus as well.
“…We have about, probably almost a dozen things that we’re trying to do to just provide the university with a little bit of a facelift. You know, it’s really cool that the university was founded over a hundred years ago, but, with that, you know, some of the buildings were here then too, so that comes with some challenges…” says Dr. Peterson.
Dr. Peterson says, although the $400,000 is a large sum, they are still looking to match it with help from alumni and their friends in the community, still needing around $200,000 dollars to complete the project. He encourages people to consider donating any amount, calling this an opportunity to help the university reach as many students as they can.
If you’d like to donate, Dr. Peterson says you can find the online portal on the Bluefield University website. Again, any amount is welcome, but a matched donation of $10,000 will fund the renovations for an entire room and will get the room named after you or whoever you’d prefer.
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