Two out of five residence halls sit dormant on Seattle Pacific University’s main campus – Moyer Hall and Hill Hall. During the 2023-2024 Seattle Pacific academic year, the student housing situation was similar with Moyer being closed alongside Ashton Hall. But after undergoing renovations, Ashton was reopened to students for the 2024-2025 year at the start of the autumn quarter.
Following Ashton’s opening, Hill was closed off to students starting in the autumn quarter under the premise that it would undergo similar renovations and restorations as Ashton. However, while crews of construction workers had been working on finishing the renovations for Ashton throughout the autumn and winter quarters, Hill remained almost entirely desolate.
In a recent email sent out by the university to students, staff and faculty, the status of both Hill and Moyer are continuing to be evaluated and addressed.
“We expect Hill Hall to continue to be offline during the 2025-26 academic year as we evaluate its best use,” the university stated. “Moyer Hall will continue to see short-term use this summer, with updates planned to resume use as a residence hall.”
According to Norlen Tracy, the director of public information for Seattle Pacific, the university is unsure of the future of Hill.
“The university continues to assess the best use for Hill Hall in light of student enrollment and the need to address facility conditions” Tracy said. “No decisions have been made at this time.”
During the former year, Hill and Arnett were the only dorms for freshman students due to Ashton being closed. Meanwhile sophomores, juniors and seniors were housed in Emerson Hall. According to John Graham, a junior majoring in electrical engineering, some sophomores were put in Hill due to Emerson not being able to hold everyone.
“At the time, all the sophomores were put in Emerson. [But] there was too many sophomores for rooms,” Graham said. “They [had] an overflow, so they took a certain amount of us and put [us in Hill]. They had two floors of upper-years in Hill, and I just happened to be put into there. I was pretty sad about it at the time.”
Despite not getting the residence hall that he wanted, Graham did find some positives in his experience of Hill.
“There’s two parking lots in Hill. My room [was] connected to the top parking lot and was one of the last couple rooms down our hallway. I had super quick access to my car for leaving and coming in, versus Ashton has this massive parking lot that you have to walk really far. I really liked that part,” Graham said. “I thought the social aspect was pretty fun. It’s a pretty lively hall, similar to Ashton with the traditional style. You just are running into people a lot.”
Drew Fleming, a junior majoring in electrical engineering and who was an Residence Advisor in Hill, was bummed that Hill is no longer housing students this year like Moyer, which has been closed since COVID-19.
“I’m sad. I really liked it. I had a great year. [But] it makes sense for it to be closed. They just did all the renovations to Ashton, they want people to live there, we don’t have enough students to need all the halls that we have,” Fleming said. “I think it makes sense as the one to close. It’s kind of the most outdated at this point, besides Moyer. Who knows what’s going on there. I wish Moyer was active. I would love to live in Moyer.”
Despite the residence hall’s uncertain future, Hill has seen some use recently with an end-of-the-winter-quarter RA meeting and the Slumber Party Olympics on Feb. 21, hosted by STORP, the combination of the Student Union Board and the Outdoor Recreation Program clubs.
Madalynn Stark, the Outdoor Recreation Program Coordinator, commented that the STORP event was organized to help introduce students to the unused hall.
“I want[ed] to do an event in there because that would be fun to use a hall that no one has been in. Freshmen haven’t been in it. I [thought] that might draw people to come, because they would be curious what it’s like,” Stark said. “It’s also just easier to use a space that won’t have anything else going on in there.”
Stark was worried about not being able to use Hill just before the event, but everything managed to work out in the end and the event went on as planned.
“The facilities guy came in and cleaned up everything for us. He cleaned all the floors. We were able to move all the furniture how we wanted to. There was a brief moment where we were worried we might not be able to use it. But then OSS and Facilities gave us the all clear.”
With no obvious renovations being done to Hill, the residence hall will not experience the same timely renovations as Ashton. For the time being, Hill will remain closed.
On a positive note, the Slumber Party Olympics will not be the last event held by STORP for this year. According to Stark, students should look out for STORPS’ upcoming Casino Night event.
“Come to Casino Night. It’ll be the first Friday of spring quarter, in the lower gym.”
