The exterior of Hilltopper Hall, a roughly $40 million residence hall, is seen in 2018 on Western Kentucky University’s campus.

Hilltopper Hall, the Western Kentucky University residence hall that closed in January following a “shifting” of masonry work, will remain closed for the Fall 2024 semester.

Tad Pardue, an attorney with the Bowling Green law firm Bell, Orr, Ayers & Moore that is working with WKU’s Student Life Foundation, stated in an email SLF is currently working to formulate plans for repairs to the building, which opened to students in 2018.

“That process will understandably take some time,” Pardue stated. “Therefore, those designs and repairs will not be complete by the semester scheduled to begin next month.”

Jace Lux, director of Media Relations for Western, stated via text that students who live in a dorm which becomes unavailable for occupancy are given the option to live in different residence halls around campus.

Normally, 400 undergraduate students live in Hilltopper Hall. When it closed in January, those students had two options:

Option one: Students could relocate to different on-campus housing, paying that hall’s housing rate and would receive a $1,000 housing credit.

Option two: Hilltopper Hall residents could move off-campus for the Spring 2024 semester, receiving an exemption from WKU’s required housing policy. They were also not charged a “contract termination fee” and had their housing charge for the dorm refunded on their spring bill.

Lux stated the students who opted to move off campus then and wish to remain off campus will need to notify Housing & Residence Life.

“They are already granted an exemption,” Lux stated.

Those who chose to live on campus and now want to move off will need to go through the university’s exemption process. Lux stated these students are not guaranteed to receive an exemption to move off-campus.

Requests for exemption from on-campus housing must be filed with HRL no later than Aug. 23.

WKU’s Student Life Foundation learned exterior masonry work on the building had “shifted out of place” earlier in the 2023-24 academic year.

Residents were required to move out between Jan. 26 and Feb. 4. According to a FAQ page posted by the university, SLF received and reviewed a preliminary report from civil engineers and an architect on Jan. 17, after the university had reopened after winter break.