Though first-year students have been living in Kellogg, the new dormitory in the Alderman Road housing area, for more than a month, the dedication of the dorm is scheduled to take place this afternoon.
The building was named after the late Robert Kellogg, who died in 2004. Kellogg was the chair of the English Department from 1974 to 1978 and, during his second term, was appointed dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. Kellogg served as dean until 1985 and retired from working for the University in 1999.
Kellogg “was a renowned scholar and teacher,” University spokesperson Carol Wood said, adding that Kellogg was also an early mentor to University President John T. Casteen, III.
The dedication will be open to the public, Wood said, and the University has invited a number of guests, including Kellogg’s widow, family members and close friends.
Casteen will speak at the ceremony, and guests will be offered tours of the new building, Wood said.
Constructed at a cost of $18.8 million, Kellogg is the first of seven new dorms planned to replace 11 current residences in the Alderman Road area.
The new dorm boasts a more luxurious living style than previously available to first-year students, including four floors of rooms, elevators, individual heating and cooling controls and lounges with flat screen TVs. Kellogg is a hall-style dorm rather than suite-style, with key cards instead of traditional keys to get into each individual room. The building, like other dormitories, is also equipped with wireless and wired Internet connections.
First-year Engineering student Gus Nielsen does not live in Kellogg but said that does not stop him from spending most of his free time there.
“They have A/C,” Nielson said, explaining why he preferred spending his time in Kellogg rather than in his own dorm, Dabney.
When asked about the perks and drawbacks of Kellogg, residents’ answers reflected an overall satisfaction with the dorm blemished only by frustrations with the distance of Kellogg from Central Grounds. Reaching Kellogg requires hiking up part of Observatory Hill, a disadvantage about which first-year College student Zenubia Madhani remarked, “We’ll keep the freshman 15 [pounds] off, I guess.”
Madhani noted, though, that the dormitory does have advantages such as its proximity to the AFC, Scott Stadium and Observatory Hill Dining Hall.
Wood explained that the Kellogg dormitory is a part of a three-phase plan to improve upon outdated and inefficient facilities. Phase one, Kellogg, was approved as a capital project in February 2007, Wood said, and at the upcoming Board of Visitors’ Building and Grounds Committee meeting Thursday, the architect and engineer selection for another new dormitory, constituting phase two, will face approval. According to the board’s agenda, plans for this second residence hall will be presented in February 2009. Students ultimately can expect the demolition of five residence halls — Balz, Dobie, Maupin, Watson and Webb — Wood said, and the construction of four new dorms offering more than 800 beds for first-year students.
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