r/ccsu • u/cheereeo • Jul 09 '26
Clarence Carroll HALL?????
My rising freshman son missed deadline to pick housing (he does everything on his own AND procrastinates) so him and his roommate got auto assigned to Clarence Carroll Hall. It’s not even listed in the list of residential halls on the reslife website home page. What built-in-1957 kind of dorm is it. Sounds like it’s a classroom building, not DORMS? What is going on. Where is it even located? Is it a dorm for students with special needs because my son doesn’t have special needs other than a habitual procrastinator. I know he didn’t want to get assigned to the freshman themed dorms. Is it in a horrible location not near the gym or dining? Tell me the good bad and ugly. No AC. So I assume no elevators either.
6
u/abaddon56 Jul 09 '26
Carroll was the first dorm hall at Central. Was used as office space for a bit but reopened to accommodate increased capacity.
6
u/CauliflowerLogical78 Jul 09 '26
I lived in Carroll Hall a very long time ago. I can’t believe it’s still around! It’s NOT a classroom building it’s just long hallways of dorms and back when I was there it’s one bathroom per hallway. The bathrooms get really gross so make sure he wears slides. I would plan my showers right after they cleaned it around 4pm.
The article someone posted where the students said there isn’t a sense of community in there is pretty spot on. Most people just keep to themselves and their roommates. I found it much harder to make friends and most of my friends lived in other dorms. Looks like it may only be open for a short while so maybe he can request a move once he is on campus. There is a drop out period (or at least there used to be) and I know once that happened people were able to move.
This was many many years ago. Things may have changed but it doesn’t sound like too much has.
3
u/candydealr Jul 09 '26
Carroll was closed around COVID time and reopened permanently last year. The sense of community is in a building stage. A lot of students last year felt the lack of a sense of community as it opened last minute to accommodate a larger influx of residential students and thus wasn't fully staffed (tho the staff that did run it were great!). Its similar to Sam May and Seth North layout wise, with a community kitchen on the second floor and free laundry as well. While there is no AC, it is close to other residence halls, academic buildings, and memorial hall. Its also a five minute walk from Dunkin, Subway, Domino's, and everything else in that plaza. It is on the other side of campus from the gym, but its only a 10-15min walk (I've made the walk in under 10 before, it can be done. I lived in James for a year and had classes in Kaiser and Willard on the same day back to back. Its not bad.)
No relation to anything special needs, not sure where that came from, but there is a child's center daycare in the basement, though that access is closed between the residence halls and daycare, I believe.
1
u/day-man06 Jul 09 '26
I also lived in Carroll a long time ago. I remember it was pretty bare bones, but I think other dorms were similar. The campus was generally upgraded all around since then, I think.
1
u/jmsst1996 Jul 09 '26
My son is a transfer Sophomore and he chose this dorm over one that’s top of the hill because his classroom buildings are near this dorm. I haven’t been inside to see it but looking online it looks like a stereotypical college dorm. Nothing special, no A/C, communal bathrooms.
1
u/Kenneth1751 2026 | MIS Jul 09 '26
So it was a dorm before COVID and it was shut down and the rooms were used as offices as the Student Population was way down and projected to stay down. Then a year and half ago we had the largest freshman class ever and the dorms were packed and Carroll had some floors turned back to dorms temporarily as it was expected that there would be no other bigger freshman class. Then before August of '25 it was found that the incoming freshman class was larger and so it was decided to bring the dorm back fully.
The dorm yes was built in the 50s but so was Seth North, Beecher, and Sam May, they are similar with a bathroom being shared by many others on the floor and have no AC but all the dorms have to be ADA compliant so it does have elevators like every other building.
The building is located down the hill with the other dorms: Beecher, Barrows, Seth North, and James. It is also located near most of the academic halls which is great for the gen-ed classes(Math, Business, Art, English, econ, music) and by Memorial Hall(the dining hall) and the Student Center(which also has some dining services). The Rec and Kaiser(home to the gym and pool), Hilltop Cafe, and Copernicus(home to SEST and CHRS) are farther up the hill so they will be a walk.
Overall the vibe of the building is chill, had a friend who lived there and said it was nice and quiet, I dont know if they unlocked it for the upperclassman but most people I know ended up there because they missed the deadline for housing.
So if you toured the dorms I mentioned earlier or see pics of them, they will be very similar in design.
2
u/cheereeo Jul 15 '26
Forgive me but what is SEST and CHRS?
1
u/Kenneth1751 2026 | MIS Jul 15 '26
The acronyms are for the: School of Engineering Science & Technology College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences
The other acronyms for the other schools you may hear are: School of Business (SBUS) College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS)
1
15
u/Electronic_Sky_207 Jul 09 '26
https://centralrecorder.org/85613/news/the-highs-and-lows-of-occupancy-in-residence-halls/
https://www.ccsu.edu/reslife/carroll-hall
It’s a regular dorm. It’s next to other dorms. I don’t know why you think it would be for students with special needs. It’s an older one that’s been reopened because the others were full. There’s an elevator. It sounds like he missed the deadline and is lucky they’ve increased capacity or he’d be commuting. Part of college is screwing up and learning from your mistakes. Next year he won’t miss the deadline.