Several of the dorm buildings on Johnson State College’s campus have been updated over the last summer, some with new fixtures and others with new policies.

The most notable updates have happened to Arthurs, the campus’s designated substance-free dorm. Most noticeably, there is now a wall at the bottom of the stairwell separating the basement stairs and the second floor stairs.

Assistant Director of Residence Life Jeff Bickford explained that this was a feature requested by the Vermont Department of Labor and Safety, to prevent students from accidentally fleeing into the basement during an evacuation emergency instead of exiting. “In a fire alarm situation, you don’t want to make people stop and think about what they are doing,” said Bickford.

Arthurs also has updated fixtures in the third and fourth floor restrooms in each suite, which now use the same showerheads and sinks as other dorms. The toilets now face into the suite instead of the hallways, and the often-bare alcoves in each suite have been removed. Lastly, sprinklers were also installed throughout the building. Bickford said that “Arthurs was just due for an upgrade”, and that the first and second floors are slated for updates next.

According to Physical Plant Director Woody Dionne, the renovations to Arthurs have cost $587,000 so far; the funding for this came from the college’s residential capital improvement account, which contains monies put aside annually to cover renovations in residence halls.

The second and third floors of Governors South are now also substance-free dorms, in addition to Arthurs. This is due to popular demand from incoming freshmen who desire safer-feeling living conditions without dealing with the limited number of rooms in Arthurs, according to Bickford.

Because of the reduced demand for living space, many of Arthurs’s relatively small doubles have been converted to single-occupant rooms while many of Martinetti’s fairly spacious single rooms have been converted to doubles.

Martinetti’s restrooms are no longer co-ed as of this year, in a move to make students more comfortable.

Currently, no other updates are planned for Johnson State College.

According to Assistant Dean of Students Michelle Whitmore, changes are determined by the college’s administration using student input from a variety of sources.

“The decisions for residence hall improvements are made between the College’s administration and from feedback provided by students in conversation with their residence life staff, from completed surveys, and from focus group conversations.”