MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Following weekend commencement ceremonies, the WVU campus in Morgantown is almost empty and one of the oldest residence halls on campus soon will be too.
The university has closed Arnold Hall on the downtown campus for good as one employee has to say goodbye to the family she has known for 23 years.
Kyleen Lewis, manager of the dining services at Arnold Hall, has seen hundreds of employees come and go throughout her time. Yet, they all have left a place in her heart.
“Knowing that all of my staff here is family, and knowing that we were going to be split up, was the hardest thing,” Lewis said. “Because every dining hall has their own family and the way they work. It’s going to be hard to lose my family here at Arnold Hall.”
Lewis first started her career in 1986 at the Towers dining services. Since then, she became one of the head cooks at Towers and then moved up the corporate stepping ladder to manager at Arnold Hall.
A normal day for Lewis consists of coming in at 6 a.m. to open up the kitchen. Checking with her cooks to make sure the menus are correct and all of the supplies are ready. At 9 a.m. Lewis starts greeting the students as they grab breakfast.
“I love working with the kids,” Lewis said. “I think it’s watching the kids come in as freshmen and then leaving as seniors and how much they grow. I just really love interacting with the students.”
Arnold Hall and Apartments opened in 1957 as an all-women’s dorm. After 60 years and over 35,000 residents, WVU decided to close Arnold permanently due to the University’s 2012 Student Housing Master Plan.
The university will make up for the missing 411 beds by using the south tower of University Place as a resident hall beginning the fall 2017 semester.
“Arnold is a very old hall,” Lewis said. “I know the kids suffer with some of the maintenance here. We suffer with the maintenance in the kitchen a lot. We don’t have any air conditioning; it’s very miserable here in the summer time.”
Lewis will continue managing a new dining staff at Boreman Hall for two more years before she retires.
For the rest of the dining staff at Arnold, they will be split up to work at different residence halls.
“Wherever I go, it’s not going to be the same,” Lewis said. “It’s not going to be the same as being here for 23 years with some of the exact same people. But, I’m looking forward to working with the people at Boreman because they’re really nice people.”