An LSU building is being remodeled after years of mold and leaks. Moving poses new challenges.

The Renewable Natural Resources building on LSU’s campus is to be remodeled after years of students and faculty using the building with mold and leaking ceilings.
From the outside, the RNR building looks just like any other older building on campus. The walk inside changes that impression. Tarps hang from the ceilings, dropping down to buckets to catch leaking water. Wooden two-by-fours seem to support parts of the ceilings. In the classrooms, a checkerboard of missing tiles decorate the ceilings and water stains mar remaining tiles.
Regardless of the current state of the building, students can be found gathering throughout the common areas. Students crowd the tables and line the couches studying together or talking while waiting for their next class.
LSU will start renovating the RNR building after the fall 2023 semester. That means faculty and students must move out. For students, classes will continue in the Electrical Engineering Building and Tureaud Hall.
Professors must move into temporary offices and laboratories like the Electrical Engineering Building, Dalrymple Hall and Francioni Hall. Many professors now realize that “new” offices and laboratories may present new challenges and lack some materials found only in the RNR building.
Michael Kaller, undergraduate coordinator in the School of Renewable Natural Resources, said faculty have experienced many years of leaking ceilings and destroyed offices.
“Nine offices, three research labs, two hallways and one classroom have been affected by water leaks,” he said.
These labs, hallways and classroom still remain in use as of the fall semester.
Hallie Dozier, an assistant professor for forestry extension natural resources, was forced to move out of her office due to flooding from a leak in a neighboring office.
“I am now in the third office I have occupied since early 2022,” she said.
Thunderstorms and heavy rains can cause excessive leaking to rooms and hallways, which requires office and room checks after downpours. Dozier said many of the trashcans and recycling bins given to the department are used for catching leaking water rather than their intended use.
“It rains inside the classrooms. The ceiling tiles fall in the hallway and the labs,” said Kevin Ringelman, an associate professor of waterfowl ecology and management. “It has flooded graduate student offices and wrecked their things.”
Mold in the building brings many other difficulties to residing in the building.
“When I sit down for class, I have to brush pieces of mold off of the table that have fallen from the vent, every day,” said RNR senior Cathryn Coulter, who was to graduate in December.
The custodial staff have been as thorough as they can be to ensure some parts of the building remain accessible for students and faculty to use.
Kaller explained that damage was reported to LSU Facility Services. This usually resulted in patchwork to the roof or buckets to catch the water. New repairs to the RNR building will include replacement of the roof, ceilings and HVAC system.
The budget for these repairs is $9 million. As of now, this does not include repairs to the floors or walls, but this could change soon and be added to the remodel. Funds for the project were approved by the state legislature from bond sales, Kaller said.
Apart from the challenges of spending years in the deteriorating building, faculty and students will face new problems with moving temporarily into other buildings.
Faculty will lose access to equipment needed for research projects. These pieces of equipment are bolted to the ground in the RNR building and cannot be moved. Kaller said reduced research productivity could diminish the reputation of the program.
Ringelman said the talk of the move has come with great uncertainty and very little communication.
Professors were told they would be moving to new offices, but details were not brought to their attention on how the process would work.
“I still do not believe the move is going to happen in three weeks, and I refuse to pack a box until someone hands me a key to my new space,” Ringelman said.
Dozier said the move will affect the connection between faculty and students.
“This is a dynamic department where students and faculty feel comfortable interacting on a regular and oftentimes spontaneous basis. The freedom and spontaneity will be lost, I fear,” she said.
Students also believe in a unique sense of community and friendship that occupies the department. Many classes in the RNR department include a lab session that sometimes involves students traveling in vans together. These drives can vary from 10 minutes to one hour. These long drives have brought students closer and created friendships that last through their undergraduate years.
Coulter said that RNR students may have a hard time mixing with other students in new buildings.
“There are many RNR classes with outdoor field trips. Students walk around the RNR building with waders, rubber boots, and hiking boots occasionally trekking in mud,” she said.
This is a daily occurrence for RNR students, but how will other students react to muddy boot prints?
The remodel is planned to be finished by the fall 2024 semester with faculty and students hoping to move back into the building in December 2024 or during the spring 2025 semester, Kaller said.
Although faced with challenges, the students and faculty will try to keep the community they have built alive and well through already established friendships. The RNR lobby was a room that was almost always occupied with students doing homework, studying or waiting for their next class.
Students have already begun to talk of classrooms they can occupy in other buildings to study and congregate in, because they know how important the feeling of community is in their department.