University of Iowa students have a new factor to consider as they pick a dorm of their choice for the Feb. 1 housing deadline: Burge Residence hall’s modernization project.
The Iowa Board of Regents approved the $20.3 million renovation in November.
The renovations will turn communal bathrooms from the six floors into pod-style, single user bathrooms, similar to those in Catlett and Hillcrest residence halls.
Burge currently utilizes communal style bathrooms, or a larger space with rows of stalls and sinks. INVISION Architecture LLC will take on construction, which will take place during the summer months from 2025 to 2030.
Caleb Westra, a second-year student at the UI and a resident assistant at Burge, said there is a need for bathroom renovations, but he is surprised by the university’s current price point.
“Some of them look pretty old,” he said. “The two lobby bathrooms, especially, I’d say, compared to some other ones I’ve seen. But $20 million definitely should not go towards just the bathrooms. Maybe a little bit, but not that much.”
While Westra agrees with the university’s plan for upgraded plumbing, he said he disagrees with the pod style if Burge will continue to not offer more co-ed living. Westra said the privacy of a pod is not needed if all the residents on the floor are the
same gender.
“If you’re trying to increase more living, make accommodations for more toilets, more showers,” he said. “Pods would limit bathroom availability. I feel like people would abuse those.”
Westra said on his floor, he has heard requests from students to modernize the downstairs study space instead of any requests to renovate the bathrooms.
“Some people complain about the lack of games, saying, ‘You only have one pool table,’ and then Currier has four of them,” he said. “I heard, ‘Get more games down there, more space, update some of the equipment.’”
Westra said renovated bathrooms could lead more students to choose Burge Residence Hall over other dorms.
“Burge has always been attractive,” he said. “People want Burge right away. It’s always the one that’s filled up. It’s right next to all the buildings, especially Tippie [College of Business] and the Chemistry Building. The location is in our favor.”
Ishan Dhanani, a UI fourth-year student and a resident assistant at Burge, said he believes Burge will make their floors co-ed with the renovations, making the pod-style bathrooms a welcome change for him and other RAs.
“I think it would help out a lot,” he said. “It would reduce our incident reports. We would never have to write up girls for going into the guy’s bathroom because that wouldn’t be an issue. That would be really helpful.”
Dhanani said he thinks the privacy of one room could prevent residents from running into disorderly crowds at night.
Dhanani said he hopes the changes will address the disparity in the bathroom sizes across Burge Residence Hall.
“My bathroom compared to the one floor up, the girls bathroom above, is probably half the size,” he said. “We have six showers, three stalls, two sinks, two urinals. I think the girls floor above has 12 showers.”
Dhanani said communal-style bathrooms have a negative connotation around campus, so changing the bathrooms to pods will attract
more residents.
“I think Burge would become even more attractive after that,” he said. “I think it’s already attractive because we have the dining hall and the [Clinton Street Market]. So people know we’re in Iowa cold months, they don’t want to go outside.”
Isla Hamilton, a UI first-year student, said while she appreciates the university accommodating students at Burge Residence Hall through the renovations, she wishes more attention would be brought to her dorm, Mayflower Residence Hall.
“The fact that they’re renovating Burge, while I’m sure that they do need that as well, it feels a little superficial,” she said. “Their bathrooms are gross, but our everything is gross.”
Mayflower Residence Hall remains open despite multiple past efforts by the University of Iowa to sell or redevelop the building.
Proposals of selling the building were ultimately dropped, allowing Mayflower to continue housing students while the university reassessed its long-term housing needs.
Hamilton said while the first floor of Mayflower was renovated in the summer, the same attention has not been brought to the rest of the dorm.
Hamilton said both her kitchen and bathroom have stunk over the semester, no matter how much she tries to clean them.
“It feels a little crazy because we were put here,” she said. “None of us chose Mayflower. We got it as a last choice. And so as freshmen, it’s weird to be living in a suite style without a kitchen that really properly works and is gross.”
Hamilton said beside renovating the kitchens, she’d like to see the Mayflower Market revamped.
“It’s supposed to be like the Clinton Street Market at Burge, but it’s definitely not,” she said. “It’s very understocked, and they don’t really have many food options and definitely not many nutritious options.”
Hamilton said while it must be difficult for the university to make a list of priorities for dorms, she feels Mayflower’s issues have gone on longer than most.
“It feels a little like Burge is central, and that’s what a lot of people see when they come to campus,” she said. “Mayflower feels like it’s shoved to the side and like they don’t want people to think about it.”
The university’s priority to renovate Burge remains.
UI Senior Vice President and University Architect Rod Lehnertz noted in the regents meeting in November that Burge is the second largest residence hall on campus and must be continually modernized to sustain the large number of residents.
“Part of this is student life and the housing and dining’s continued effort to keep our residence halls modernized,” he said.