Roberts Hall ready for students
The newest University of Indianapolis residence hall, Roberts Hall, is open and soon will house 170 upperclassmen in both single and double rooms.
Roberts Hall features semi-private bathrooms, like Central and East Halls, where one bathroom connects two rooms.
Newly-constructed Roberts Hall includes kitchens on every floor, mailboxes for residents, a fitness center and a solar water heater. Photo by Kelbi Ervin
Each floor has its own laundry room, kitchen, common area and color scheme.
Roberts Hall also has its own fitness center, which contains cardio workout equipment such as treadmills and elliptical machines.
It also is the first residence hall to have its own mailboxes for residents. Students living in other residence halls pick up their mail in Schwitzer Student Center.
“[With] the mailboxes in Schwitzer, there’s no more space. So when we were building this [Roberts Hall] we had to put those mailboxes in,” said Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Kory Vitangeli. “The hope is that eventually all the buildings will go to that, years down the road. ”
Another unique feature about Roberts Hall is its solar water heating system—the first installed on campus—which uses newer technology than other similar systems, according to Director of the Physical Plant Ken Piepenbrink.
“A lot of hot water systems, solar water systems, actually run the water through a panel where the water is heated, and it’s pretty inefficient. And you have to have a lot of panels to get a lot of heat for the amount of storage you needs—especially for a dorm where you have a lot of showers… They also operate where you have to have direct sunlight to work, to heat the water,” Piepenbrink said. “The system that this company developed has an old vacuum tube—in other words, it’s a tube that has metal sensors that run through it, and basically they gather the heat into this metal and actually can get the heat whether it’s a cloudy day or not.”
Piepenbrink said the heat then is transferred to the water, which heats more quickly with this new technology than it would with older technology.
Although he believes that this solar water heating system will be a success, there is a backup plan. Roberts Hall has a natural gas water boiler in case the solar heating system fails to meet expectations.
According to Piepenbrink, if this system is successful in Roberts Hall, the university will consider replacing old water heating systems with solar heating systems.
A dedication ceremony for Roberts Hall is scheduled for Sept. 27.
