After a summer of renovations, repairs and remodeling, Gessner Hall is now occupied with students and residence life staff members for the school year.

After issues with the heating and cooling units last year, crews spent the summer making changes to the building in order to make it more appealing to students.

“The piping for the heating (and) cooling system was replaced,” Jeremy Portlock, director of Baker University’s physical plant, said. “All heating (and) cooling fan coil units were replaced. Replacing the original units will increase cooling and heating efficiency and reduce equipment downtime and repairs.”

The air conditioning units havea a digital display which makes it easier to control the temperature of the room.

“The air conditioner really needed to be replaced because they were kind of getting moldy and stuff,” junior resident assistant Daniel Davis said. “It’s good to have the clean air now.”

New carpet was also put into the upstairs common living area of Gessner Hall and in the basement game room area. Some of the rooms were scraped and repainted as well.

“I think the (resident assistants) that have moved in have noticed the difference and the building seems to be much cooler. They really seem to enjoy it,” Teresa Clounch, director of residence life, said. “And they like the new carpet because it just makes everything look a little fresher. We moved some furniture around downstairs, and just trying to do some different things.”

Because renovations weren’t complete at the time the resident assistants moved in on Aug. 2, the Gessner staff had to stay in Irwin Hall the first week they were on campus.

Although the resident assistants have moved into Irwin, their staff is one member short. Normally, there are four resident assistants and one senior resident assistant in Gessner, but because of low resident numbers, only three residents assistants and one senior resident assistant were needed.

“There’s no one living in the Irwin basement either because there (are) not enough residents to fill that space,” Davis said.