On Aug. 9, the to-be residents of Renfrow Hall received an email from the Department of Residence Life (ResLife), announcing that students would not be able to move into their apartments in the fall semester due to a second round of construction delays. With college administrators scrambling to move residents within days, students described move-in circumstances that were confusing and inconvenient. As of now, there is no set move in date.
Last April, a first round of delays pushed the move-in date for residents in the North Tower of Renfrow back until fall break of the following semester. Residents in South Tower were originally still set to move-in to their apartments on time. Now, the move-in date for North Tower has been pushed back to Spring 2025 with South Tower slated to open during the fall break instead.
As compensation, residents will only pay regular room rates instead of apartment rates for the whole year, and those on Meal Plan 3 — 100 meal swipes at the Marketplace Dining Hall in a semester — will receive 75 additional free swipes.
Octavia George `25, a Community Advisor (CA) in Renfrow Hall’s South Tower, said she received the email delaying Renfrow’s opening just three days before she was due to return for CA training. Placed in College-owned Windsor House, she said that she had already “anticipated they [ResLife] were having trouble” due to the lack of updates about Renfrow over the summer.
For this semester, the Latinx/e Cultural Center was meant to open for students to live in Windsor House. Due to Renfrow’s delays, displaced students were relocated to the would-be cultural center instead.
“The day I got back to Grinnell, I literally pulled up on the street right outside of Windsor House, looked at my phone, and I saw that I had an email,” George said. “They were like, ‘Windsor house isn’t ready yet. You’re going to stay in Hotel Grinnell for a week because we need to finish setting up.’”
According to Dennis Perkins Jr., assistant dean of residence life and student conduct, there had not been a “defined date” of completion for Renfrow’s construction. “The idea was to start the project and have it be finished in time for students to move-in in August.”
According to Perkins, ResLife had been able to “preempt” the first delay back in April, successfully accommodating students in residence halls and project and language houses. But when the second delay happened, there was “literally no space” left because most other students’ placements had already been decided, Perkins explained, forcing the College to turn to College-owned properties not meant for residential use, short-term partnerships with locals and even Airbnbs.
Perkins attributed the delays to labor constraints but said he was not sure if there were other reasons. “All we were told, pretty much, was that they had trouble finding people to actually do the work,” he said.
“It’s just one of those things that happens,” he said, in reference to the delay.
Perkins added that the late notice of the delay was because ResLife wanted to “make sure exactly what we’re communicating.”
“You don’t just send a message saying, ‘Oh, you’re going to be delayed,’ because the first question students are going to ask is, ‘What’s going to happen? Where am I going to go?’” Perkins said. “We have to figure out how to get those answers first.”
Scott Lee `26, who was one of the residents affected by the first delay in the North Tower and now lives in Younker Hall, said that it had been difficult to get email responses from college administration because there was no main point of contact for residents.
“I thought it was only going to be for a month at most,” he said. “I already had all these ideas of preparing for this.”
“Many of us wanted to live in Renfrow because of access to kitchens,” said Candice Lu `26. Lu was placed in Grinnell House, which has no kitchen or basic cooking equipment. “We wrote an email to ResLife, asking if we can have access to a kitchen, and they said no. And we also asked if they could put electric stoves there and Dennis Perkins responded that he would talk to Facilities Management about it.”
Mufrad Chowdhury `27 said he found the last-minute announcement and lack of updates “unprofessional,” especially since he had already been “hearing news that Renfrow has not been ready since last semester.” Yet, having been placed in Windsor House, he said that he was reluctant to move to Renfrow once it was completed.
“I’m really enjoying my time being here,” he said, referring to Windsor House. “We have our kitchen, our own living room and dining room, there is a small community and it’s close to the campus and town,” he said. “It took me three days to get settled in here. If I want to move back to Renfrow, I have to pack everything again, and carry them two blocks down the road.”
Farhan Rahman `27, who had been placed in Russian House despite speaking no Russian, also expressed reluctance to move during the fall break as it would disrupt plans. “I came in expecting to be in Renfrow … but it’s really great being here,” he said. “There’s this independence I feel living in a house.”
However, he added that he still wanted to see Renfrow Hall complete. “One of the reasons I applied for Renfrow is because … we’d be the first people there,” he said. “I still kind of want to be a part of those people … I can tell just from the stuff they’re trying to do that they really want to make this work.”
George said that “it would be nice to walk down the hallways and see everyone’s faces, not just the people I’m currently living with.” However, she added concerns that residents would be moving back onto an active construction site, particularly if “the place you’re trying to live in is not quiet, or if you have construction workers in your hallways.”
In response, Perkins said that disruption would be minimized. “We do believe there will be some minor disruption, but we will keep a schedule so that students aren’t bothered,” he said, adding that any foreseen disruptions would be communicated.
According to Perkins, there is currently no set move-in date, although they were considering the weekend before fall break. However, he noted that students have remained responsive despite the challenges.
“They want to come out and talk to other students who are moving in with them soon … they want to be engaged,” he said. “That part has been a lot easier than we thought it would be.”
Despite the delays, the Renfrow Hall Dedication on Sept. 28 will not be postponed. It will honor its namesake Edith Renfrow Smith `37, the oldest living graduate and the College’s first Black alumna, on-site, amidst scaffolding, steel beams and orange traffic cones.
