By Tucker Reilly, News Editor, and Julia Schneider, Staff Writer
St. Bonaventure University has recently completed renovations to study lounges in Devereux Hall, with upgrades to furniture, paint and wall decorations. While work officially ended on Oct. 9, students are still becoming acclimated to the changes.
When asked about possible construction in Devereux prior to work beginning on Oct. 2, Jared Smith, director of facilities at the university, downplayed the extent of the renovations.
“There is no construction in Dev. Just an upgrade to the furniture,” he said.
In an email sent to students on Oct. 1, Bonaventure’s Residential Education noted that while the lounges would “possibly be off-line for a day or two to allow paint to dry, etc.,” the tradeoff would allow for “an upgrade to the existing lounge space in the building.”
The changes are largely cosmetic, and relatively minor: the two wooden-frame couches in each Devereux lounge were replaced with newer, green couches, several walls were repainted and a large “SBU” logo with a wolf decal was added.
“I love the SBU wolf wall,” said Laura Esposito, a sophomore health science major. “It is super creative, is good to take pics in front of and the new furniture is definitely a lot cleaner than the old.”
“It’s definitely an upgrade,” said Michael Seitz, a sophomore sports media major. “They’re much nicer than they were before.”
Nicholas Rizzo, a sophomore sports studies major, believes the university lived up to its promises in the renovations, and that his excitement at the original announcement was validated.
“It looked really good when they sent out that first email, and I was into it,” he said. “I’m sure others have already said this, but I think it’s definitely an improvement over what we had before and we really needed it.”
The renovations also appeared to be relatively hassle-free for students, despite the prior warning. Many students had been aware of the renovations taking place, but never saw the process themselves.
“I knew they were doing renovations, but I didn’t expect it to be that much of a difference,” said John Ancillotti, a sophomore journalism major. “It’s funny, I might have looked into it sooner if I had seen, but even when it was right down the hall I didn’t notice much.”
“I didn’t even notice when it was happening, although I knew they were there,” said Seitz.
Overall, the responses appear to have been largely positive, with students satisfied both that the renovations were not intrusive on their daily routines, and that the new additions provide a solid upgrn ade to the lounges as a whole.
schneije18@bonaventure.edu
reillyt19@bonaventure.edu
