Campus activities shift locations, disrupting clubs and drama

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During the summer, the University of Dallas converted Catherine Hall back into a residence hall in order to accommodate the largest incoming freshman class in school history. The drama department’s costume shop, which had been in Catherine, was consequently moved into Jerome Hall’s basement. Accordingly, clubs and CAB, who were storing things in the basement as well as using the area for meetings, had to move into Gregory Hall.

The transition was tough because Jerome had been used as a storage place for many years.

Sarah Baker, residence coordinator for the west side, said, “For at least the last 8 years, Jerome basement has been used by Campus Activities. I am not aware of what the case was before that.”

All the campus activities that were held in Jerome now happen in the Gregory storage space. With 7-10 clubs, as well as CAB and other organizations moving into Gregory, the storage space will be busy.

When asked about the storage space, Baker said, “It was used as a lounge. It will still be available to Greg residents but it will also be used by club events and CAB.”

Because of all the new activities going on in the storage place, the residents will have to accommodate sharing the space, creating a slight inconvenience for them.

According to Alexa Hassell, a politics and Italian major and resident assistant in Gregory, “​The new storage space in the Gregory upper lounge makes the space a little less accessible to residents given that clubs and organizations will use the dorm space in evenings for practices and events.”

Although it will be more crowded than before, the constant flow of people won’t be a new thing to the hall, and it could possibly create a more exciting environment.

The lyrical dance club had a positive transition from Jerome to Gregory, even though the transition did come with some ups and downs that Sylvan Wiebe, a junior education major and president of the lyrical dance club, had to navigate.

Wiebe said, “Overall there are positives and negatives involved with the move to Gregory Hall. Gregory is more spacious, which is great considering that we have about eight people who all need space to dance and move. However, Gregory has carpeted floors which isn’t the best for practicing turns, so we have to be really careful when practicing certain skills.”

The transition for the drama department was the biggest move out of all the groups. The costume shop is a big part of the theater and has many parts that all function together. The simple tasks of moving from one place to another made it difficult for the drama department.

Kyle Lemieux, associate professor of drama and founder and artistic director of Dallas Actor’s Lab said: “The move has deeply impacted our ability to get the shop up and running and operate as a shop. That said, we anticipated this, and Prof. Cox and Novinski have done a wonderful job and worked very hard to ensure the shop is now, more or less, fully functioning.” 

The transition for the drama department was successful thanks to all the help they received.

Lemieux said, “We are quite proud of our costume shop and without the help of the team from facilities, John Norris and John Plotts, the department would not have been able to fully make the transition at all.”

Moving the costume shop and club meeting places was a bit challenging, but it didn’t change the atmosphere that the dorms used to have.

Hassell said, “I did live in Gregory my freshman year and remember the space being used quite often by other residents. In this way, it really hasn’t changed because people are utilizing the space well and often.”

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