Students in Gallup Hall may have noticed a new improvement to the building when they first moved. Over the summer, fire sprinklers were finally installed in the dormitory.
When Gallup Hall was built, building codes did not require on-campus apartments or suites to be equipped with a sprinkler system. Since Gallup consists entirely of suites and apartments, sprinklers were not installed. Several years later, the codes were changed.
According to Housing Coordinator Travis Yoder, Eastern did not have enough resources to make the necessary upgrades until this previous summer. “When Gallup was built, it wasn’t part of the code,” Yoder said. “Now that we have the resources, it’s something we’ve brought up to code.”
According to Yoder, the entire hall was taken offline immediately after classes ended last May. This proved to be somewhat problematic as Gallup is traditionally used to house graduate students and education majors who are taking summer classes. These students were housed in other dormitories while the renovations were made to Gallup.
Work began on May 11 by Plant Ops personnel and third-party contractors and concluded in late July.
In addition to the new fire suppression system, new carpeting was installed in Gallup, and basic maintenance was also performed on the building.
Will Cunningham 
Mikaela Brown 
Sophia Hunter