by Anna McClure | Jun 5, 2015 | News Slider
High Rise renovations that are aimed to provide the “wow” factor to residental living on campus include new flooring, paint, furniture and more room for socializing. “We’ve done this because the students need it,” Dean of Student Life Sam Smith said. “The university needs it for when we’re recruiting and students come to our campus and then they go to Belmont and they go to Vanderbilt. “We needed a facility that would make a ‘wow statement’ for them, and High Rise will be that building,” Smith said. 10 rooms have been eliminated to add to the main level lobby and expand common area on some of the floors. The common area expansions on the third, seventh and eighth floors will include sitting areas, conference rooms and study rooms. “We’ve taken a big shot at increasing the community space in High Rise,” Smith said. “We don’t want students to just live there, we want them to enjoy being there and have time to be around people they want to be around, people that they want to be with, for it to feel like home while they’re here.” In addition to expanding lobbies, the closets of each room have been removed and will be replaced with wardrobes. This will increase room space and allow residents more freedom to arrange their rooms in a way that suits them. The bathrooms will be redone with changing stalls attached to the showers to make the spaces more private despite being community restrooms. “I am very excited about the renovation,” High Rise Resident Hall Director Mike Smith said. “The extra community space will give residents more space to...
by Bridgette Begle | Feb 18, 2014 | News Slider
During the weekend of Feb. 8 and 9, High Rise head resident Mike Smith led a group of 45 students to Paoli Peaks Ski Resort for a six-hour ski trip. Among the 45 students was freshman Hannah Weller, who heard about the trip from a Campus Recreation email that was sent to all students, but didn’t immediately jump at the chance. “I didn’t sign up for it until a friend of mine suggested a group of us go together,” Weller said. After meeting at High Rise at 3 p.m. Saturday, the group began the four-hour trip to Paoli, Ind. “The planned schedule was to ski and/or snowboard from 8 p.m. until two in the morning,” Weller said. Once they arrived, a few students took some ski instructions while those more experienced took to the slopes. Although the skiing and snowboarding part was fun, Weller says the downtime between runs was where the community aspect was built. “My favorite memory of the trip would have to be every time we finished a slope and got onto the ski lift,” Weller said.”That was when we really got to talk, laugh about things and debrief our experience from that run.” After six hours of skiing, the three vans headed back to Lipscomb and arrived on campus around 7:30 a.m. Sunday. “This trip brought together a great community of great people who loved the excitement,” Weller...
