The University of St. Thomas plans to demolish Cretin Hall in summer of 2024 in order to make way for the Lee and Penny Anderson Arena.

Cretin Hall is one of two residential halls on south campus, and has been home to St. Thomas students since it was built in 1895. With the announcement of the new Lee and Penny Anderson Arena, it was stated that Cretin would be one of the three buildings taken down along with McCarthy Gymnasium and the Service Center.

Lee and Penny Anderson Arena is the second construction project on south campus that will result in the destruction of a residence hall. The new Schoenecker Center will be where the historic Loras Hall once stood, although Loras was no longer housing students before its destruction.

Some students are concerned that Cretin’s demolition will make it difficult for sophomores to find housing, especially considering the university’s two year on-campus living requirement.

“Sophomores might have even more of a hard time finding places that they would preferably want to live on campus. I wanted to live in a single and if it weren’t for Cretin, I wouldn’t have gotten a single,” sophomore Tiaan de Klerk said.

Despite students’ concerns, Dr. Aaron Macke, Director of Residence Life, does not foresee this affecting the university’s capacity to house its on-campus students. He assures that St. Thomas’ construction over the past few years has had potential losses like this in mind.

“When we built Frey Hall and Tommie North, we built those halls with some additional bed capacities, knowing that there might be time in the future when spaces on campus or on mid-campus or other spaces around campus might need to be reduced or expanded [due to] academic needs, athletic needs, et cetera. We shouldn’t have too big of a crunch or impact based on Cretin,” Macke said.

The largest concern among students surrounding the destruction of Cretin was that St. Thomas was losing one of its most affordable housing options. A single room in Cretin Hall costs nearly $2,000 less per semester than its traditional-style housing counterparts. De Klerk chose Cretin Hall for those exact reasons, citing affordability and the possibility for a single room.

“I got a single on the fifth floor which is the main reason why I chose here. It was also really affordable,” de Klerk said.

According to Macke, the low pricing was a result of St. Thomas’ handling of the COVID-19 virus on campus. If Cretin were not being demolished, it would eventually have returned near to its original cost.

“Coming out of COVID then, because our enrollment was down a little bit, we had more beds than we had a need for. So we took advantage of that opportunity just to try and get some more students on campus and to provide a very affordable place to live in terms of comparison to our other residence halls.” Macke said. “We would likely, if Cretin were here going into the future, would have to raise those rates back up to levels of our other halls.”

Students including de Klerk are sad that Cretin will be demolished and would rather have had it renovated instead of completely torn down, given that it was last renovated in 1989.

“I have gotten used to this place quite a bit and have built a little community here with my friends on the fifth floor and fourth floor,” de Klerk said. “Honestly Cretin is a little old, I would have probably preferred to see it renovated.”

Cretin Hall will remain open for students in the 2023-2024 academic year before it is demolished.

Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.
Brenda Cabral can be reached at cabr4475@stthomas.edu.