Castleton State College’s new dormitory will be ready on June 1, but Castleton students will not be the first ones to sleep in it.
Dean of Administration Scott Dikeman said some much smaller bodies will be the first to bed down in New Hall.
“The new dorm will first be used for younger children for a summer camp,” he said.
The camp will take place sometime in June, long before Castleton students return for the fall semester.
And even when CSC students do return, they won’t be able to try to squat rooms in the new dorm.
 Aaron Bloomer, a full-time Castleton student, was a little disappointed with that.
“I planned on camping out to reserve a room for next year, but I guess they are doing it a different way,” he said.
Instead of allowing students to try to pick the new dorm, Dikeman said the school is just going to assign a mix of under-and-upper- classmen to the new dorm for the upcoming fall semester.
Bloomer was also bummed that younger kids get to sleep in it first.
“I was also disappointed when I heard about the summer camp because I think Castleton students should be the first ones to use the new building,” he said.
Another Castleton student, Chris Mack, agreed, saying he worried about summer camp kids ruining the new building.
“I would want Castleton students to use it first because what if something were to happen when the summer camp kids were in there?” he said.
When asked why the new dorm was built, Dikeman said “There was an issue of overcrowding on campus and we as a school want more students to live on campus.”
The new corridor style dorm will hold 162 beds with 81 rooms available for students to use if they are chosen to live there next fall.
The building is not only for students at Castleton, Dikeman said. It also has space for meetings and conferences and may hold some dinners.
The building also is going to have solar panels to reduce energy use, he said
With the building expected to cost about $7.8 million from an $8 million budget, Dikemen said they can use the other $200,000 on something else or put that money into the new gazebo being built right next to the new dorm.
Construction workers are still working long hours to finish the project, and even though Castleton students will not be the first ones to use the new dorm, there is still a positive exciting buzz going around campus about the building.
“This building is going to allow us to bring in more students as this Castleton campus continues to expand,” Dikeman said.