The Collegian

Issue date: 10/2/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Hillsdale College Archives

The female equivalent of Simpson Hall, McIntyre Hall, boasts the same setup and many of the same problems as its male counterpart.

Outdated, leaky showers, kick-out panels and single-pane windows plague the dorm in the extreme northeast corner of campus.

Freshman Erin Karlovich said when she and the residents above her take a shower at the same time, her shower often fills with water - though it does not overflow.

"It only happens sometimes and it all drains," Karlovich said.

Vice President of Administration Rich Péwé said the administration's main renovation goal in McIntyre is to replace the room's showers and drains, including ventilation in the shower/toilet portions of McIntyre suites.

Some changes were made fairly recently, he said.

"In 2000 we re-carpeted, repainted and put in new furniture," he said.

Péwé listed other things the administration would like to update in McIntyre.

"Like Simpson, it needs new windows at some point," he said. "The heating and cooling system is getting tired and we need to eventually rebuild the electrical system."

Debate about outlet access arose during discussion over McIntyre's kick-out panels last spring.

Students complained there was no way to allow access to the kick-out panels while still maintaining specified furniture arrangements and plugging everything into outlets that are concentrated on one side of the room.

Péwé said the kick-out panel problem is included in the administration's renovation plans.

"When it all does get renovated, the kick-outs would be addressed," he said. "We have the materials and methods to fix that now."

While definite plans and monetary figures are not available at this point, Péwé said he hopes to begin work on dorm renovations, including McIntyre, within the next five years.

"We're working with student affairs and the president's office on a master plan for the dorms," he said. "We'll finalize it at the end of this year, and then make a fundraising goal. The dorms are really the next thing."


In McIntyre Hall's exciting history: UFOs

College Historian Arlan Gilbert said the single most memorable moment in the history of McIntyre was when the dorm's residents caught glimpses of the now infamous UFOs that supposedly landed in the Slayton Arboretum.

On March 21, 1966, college students and residents spotted what they thought were UFOs in roughly the area of the arboretum. McIntyre residents were closest to the area.

"There was a whole craze right about then about the UFOs," Gilbert said. "It hit the national news quite hard."

Eventually, a scientist deemed that residents had in fact observed swamp gas.

Dedicated on Nov. 4, 1972, Brouwer and Jane McIntyre Residence Hall was built to house 144 women, Gilbert said.

Brouwer McIntyre was a college trustee and was the chairman of Monroe Auto Equipment Companies.

The McIntyres also funded the south wing of the Chi Omega sorority house.
They were also mainly responsible for remodeling the lower two levels of Central Hall in 1975.

"Those were the first internal renovations of their kind on campus," Gilbert said. "It was magnificent by our standards back then."

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