MOORHEAD – In 1962, New Hall was built at Concordia College as an all-female dormitory. In 1967, Cordopedia notes that New Hall’s name was changed to Hoyum Hall in commemoration of a donation from Jacob Hoyum, a Montana farmer. Hoyum dedicated the building to the memory of his wife, son and parents. Though originally an all-female dorm, Hoyum Hall became coed by floor, along with Hallett, Livedalen and Erickson Halls in 2009.
In Feb. 2022, the 55-year-old building was set to close with plans to reopen at a future date. In May of 2022, Hoyum Hall joined Brown Hall with buildings considered “offline” by Concordia College, meaning not currently in use, but having plans to reopen eventually. The date of reopening Hoyum Hall was unknown at the time.
After being offline for two academic years, Concordia College announced renovations to Hoyum Hall, as well as a reopening date of Fall 2024. Brown Hall continues to be offline.
The renovations towards Hoyum Hall included new flooring, freshly painted walls, adjustable LED lighting systems in dorm rooms, water bottle filling stations on each floor and updated common spaces.
As students arrived eagerly to occupy the newly renovated hall, the building presented two new issues: broken items and a breaker issue.
“When it was move-in day, we were getting up to six calls an hour,” said Hoyum Hall Resident Assistant Haley Walsh-Frisby, “it was honestly like that for the first week.”
Since move-in, resident assistants in Hoyum Hall have been flipping breakers for students and working on encouraging the residents to unplug items not in use.
Each wall in Hoyum Hall can hold up to “20 watts,” according to Walsh-Frisby, with the fridges taking up 11 watts alone. Many dorm rooms share walls, making wattage distribution difficult for residents of Hoyum Hall.
“If you factor that with other things that residents have plugged in, it can overpower the breakers and trip them easily,” said Walsh-Frisby.
On Wednesday, Sept. 4, Mikel Kenfield, the Director of Residence Life, sent out an email to all Hoyum Hall residents discussing the future plans to resolve the issue.
“During the remodel of Hoyum, we were required to install and Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI) system for the power receptacles in the dorm rooms,” Kenfield said in the email, “We have experienced nuisance tripping with the electrical breakers that are AFCI related.”
To get the issues relating to breakers fixed, electricians will have to retire all outlets impacted. This process can take several hours to do, as they will have to install new circuits. With students now residing in Hoyum Hall, this may make the problem harder to fix. The dates of rewiring the breakers are unknown, but a plan is in the works to get the issue sorted out either over the fall interim or winter break, according to Kenfield.
In an email to Hoyum Hall residents, Kenfield discussed the steps that Residence Life has already taken to reduce the number of tripped breakers, including completion of the AFCI transition step one and adequate training on the breaker system for the Residence Life staff.
Upon move-in, some items within Hoyum Hall’s rooms were damaged or broken, including dressers, closet doors and baseboards. If you have any issues with broken items or problems with on-campus housing facilities, fill out a work order request here.
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