A Rundown of the Residence Halls

Today I got a couple questions about what dorms were available on campus, and I thought it might be a good idea to give a basic crash course on the PCC residence halls. This is just going to be a very basic listing with a few key features, but Denis Labrecque did a couple of quick dorm tours of Ballard and Bradley on his YouTube channel.

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The Men’s Residence Halls.

When I was an undergrad, there were three men’s dorms: Ballard, Coberly, and Young Tower. This summer, the college is making substantial changes to the men’s dorms by clearing out both Ballard and Coberly and preparing to populate the newly completed Rice Tower. By the fall of 2019, the men will have a choice between two (and a half) dorms:

Rice Tower.

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Named after Dr. Bill Rice III, Rice Tower will house male students in fall 2019. It’s the second tallest building in all of Pensacola with eleven stories, and can house 996 students (four to a room). The dayrooms are massive, and each floor has a sound dampening practice room and a prayer room. Oh, and let’s not even talk about the showers: a solid surface with no grouts, making White Glove cleaning an absolute dream. The girls aren’t jealous. At all. *Ahem*

The local news channel did a walk-through tour of Rice in April, so be sure to check out their video if you want to see more of what Rice looks like from the inside:

Young Tower.

Young is the dethroned king of the men’s dorms, now that Rice is built. Young is a nine-floor tower at the convenient back door of the Four Winds dining hall. Young is known for their spacious four-person rooms, open closets, impressively modern lobby, and tends to be the tower with all the excitement. By excitement, I mean midnight fire drills, anti-bacterial explosions in the showers during White Glove, mattress slip-n-slides, and fifth floor Fight Club (although I think the club was relocated to Ballard last year).

Basically, everything exciting happens in Young Tower. Before Rice, Young was the place to be for male students.

Ballard Hall (Sort of).

Ballard is the oldest dorm on campus, dating back to the founding of the college. It originally was a co-ed dorm and acted as a multi-purpose building, since that was essentially the only building on campus for several years.

This fall, Ballard is going to become a co-ed dorm again, after being a men’s dorm for several decades. However, Ballard will only be available to students who are 23 or older, and men and women will be separated, the girls taking one half, and the guys taking the other.

The Women’s Residence Halls.

As an undergrad, I had the option of living in Dixon, Bradley, or Griffith. But again, because of Rice being built, even the women’s dorms are getting shuffled a bit in the coming semester.

Dixon Tower.

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Dixon Tower was my home for the last four years, and I loved living in it. As someone who’s highly sensitive to lighting, I found Dixon to be the most “happy” place of all the girls’ dorms: the colors were white and cream, with bright bulbs and pleasing landscape decor (except for fifth floor’s weird mushroom-theme going for it).

Dixon houses four girls to a room with a Jack and Jill bathroom connecting to a suite of another four girls. It sounds like crowded living space, but I was rarely bothered by it (and I’m an introvert). Suitemates usually stay on their half of the bathroom, and unless you all decide to strike up a deep friendship with one another, interaction usually is little more than an occasional “good morning.”

Bradley Tower.

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Bradley is the “hotel” dorm. When you walk into the main lobby, it immediately looks like you’ve walked into a Holiday Inn. There are floor-to-ceiling windows that stream in the Florida sun and a large staircase to first floor. Fitting four to a room, plus suitemates, the rooms tend to have blue wallpaper and dimmer dayrooms. The positive side? Bradley’s rooms are decidedly larger than Dixon’s, giving you and your roommates much-appreciated space.

Coberly Hall.

Coberly originally was a men’s dorm until this summer. Now that most of the guys will be living in either Young or Rice, Coberly is being converted into an “efficiency apartment.” This means, although smaller than Dixon and Bradley, Coberly will only house two per room. It will also be home to several graduate assistants who are working toward their master’s degree.

Griffith Tower (To Be Announced).

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My friend called Griffith “the sketch motel” when she first lived there. During my freshman and sophomore years, the wallpaper was actually 70s orange and looked like a great set for a horror film (oh, and legend had it that Griffith was haunted, but that’s another post for another day). It eventually got a white paint job, but still had the smallest rooms and fit three people each. The upside was, according to most everyone I knew who lived there, Griffith was a tightly-knit community, and for all of its “sketchiness,” students loved it. Now the friend who originally called it the Sketch Motel is sad that she’s being moved to another dorm next year.

Because Griffith is getting a complete remodeling this coming year. At least for the temporary future, no one will be living in it while it’s being refurbished. Staying all within the footprint of the original building, the renovation will be adopting some of Rice’s cool new features (like the solid surface showers. Lucky). No more scary hallways. No more orange counters and wallpaper. No more ghosts. Probably.

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So that’s the (very basic) rundown of the college residence halls. This summer holds a lot of changes and unknowns, if I’m honest, so even students who’ve gone to school at PCC for years don’t entirely know what to expect. We haven’t had a new residence hall in ages, so it’s all going to be new, fun, and exciting for returning students, too.