Breaking old rules and expanding for the future, Piedmont College continues to grow with its students  

Getman-Babcock, also known as GB, is Piedmont Colleges’ first residence hall built in 1942 and the closest residence hall to the main campus. Alumni remember this dorm strictly for female students, plus having the campus police building connected to GB for the female students. Starting this year, GB will be coed allowing male students to live there for the first time.

“I think GB will remain coed; I kind of think this is the guinea pig to see how it goes, and if everything does go well, things will remain the same,” said Mark Jestel, Director of Residential Living at Piedmont College.

The new program called Living Learning Community puts students together who are taking the same classes. Purcell Hall was chosen to hold this unique community of students. With the new program and Sail continuing to grow, Purcell became full, which led to GB becoming a first-year coed dorm. However, Piedmont has other plans for the dorm in the future, so that this significant change won’t last forever.

“We want more space for our students and faculty, but to do that, we have to remove older buildings, so within the next five or ten years, GB will be removed and converted into more office space,” Jestel said.

With the increasing number of students living on campus, Piedmont College is rapidly changing each year. Purcell is a primary example of this rapid change to the campus. The residence hall recently got new air conditioner units, an elevator installed, and a brand new roof. Even though these are some massive changes, Purcell will receive even more upgrades in the future.    

“Purcell is getting a huge update, which will include gutting out the bathrooms, getting new furniture, taking out the main stairwell, and more,” Jestel said, discussing Purcell’s future.

Bringing more students to the campus means there will be a need for more space, and for years Piedmont receives complaints about the parking at the Commons. Across from the Commons is the Wallace dorm, which competes for parking spots with the Commons. Since Piedmont College is going in a new direction, Wallace is on the way out.

“As of right now, there are no plans of making Wallace coed, but with the need for space for students and more space for parking, the plan is to remove Wallace to make that happen,” Jestel said.

Removing GB and Wallace will create another need for more dorm rooms for future Piedmont College students. Piedmont already has the problem solved, especially with bigger freshmen classes coming in each year.

“Since Purcell will be getting an upgrade and two underclassmen dorms will be removed, a new dorm will be placed near Plymouth to get freshmen a place to stay during this huge process.”