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Kilachand Hall receives new name, serves as home for Honors College

Shelton Hall was officially renamed Kilachand Hall for the fall 2013 semester. In addition to designating three floors for students in the Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Honors College, officials made renovations to the lobby and to the study lounges. PHOTO BY SARAH FISHER/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Shelton Hall was officially renamed Kilachand Hall for the fall 2013 semester. In addition to designating three floors for students in the Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Honors College, officials made renovations to the lobby and to the study lounges. PHOTO BY SARAH FISHER/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

After partial renovations over the summer, Kilachand Hall, formerly known as Shelton Hall, is now home to approximately 140 students of Boston University’s Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Honors College.

Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore said Kilachand Hall provides a variety of spaces for students to live and work together.

“It’s nice that we’ve been able to make the investments, in large part due to the generosity of the Kilachand family, to be able to make sure that if we’re going to have that living-learning environment, we’ve got it backed up with the kind of spaces we need to make that happen,” Elmore said.

KHC Manager of Student Advising Amanda Scobie said in an email that the newly renovated residence has new and improved features.

“The first floor of the Kilachand Hall was renovated during the summer of 2013 to create spaces for the Residential Life and Kilachand Honors College Offices, and includes a common room, kitchen, bike room, laundry and vending facilities and a seminar room,” she said.

While the sixth, seventh and eighth floors of Kilachand Hall are open to all BU students, the remaining floors house KHC freshmen and upperclassman, Scobie said. In addition, the fifth floor is a specialty community for College of Engineering students and the fourth floor contains a Writers’ Corridor for students interested in writing.

After BU officials received a large monetary donation from 1974 Graduate School of Management alumnus Rajen Kilachand, BU officials made the decision to transform Shelton Hall to a specialty residence for KHC students.

“By having our students, administrative offices, classes and a common space for our faculty and students to interact all in one building, Kilachand can realize its vision of being a true living and learning community,” Scobie said.

Additionally, Scobie said renovations to Kilachand Hall will continue throughout summer 2014, though specific plans for improvements are still in progress.

College of Communication sophomore Martine Subey, a KHC student living on the seventh floor of Kilachand Hall, said she looks forward to getting to know her neighbors.

“It will be nice and interesting to interact with all other freshman that are in the honors program because it [KHC] is a different kind of college,” she said. “… It will be cool to get to know them and see what their motivation is.”

College of Engineering sophomore Dovovan Guttieres, a KHC student living on the fourth floor, said he has liked living at his residence thus far.

“It’s a pleasure and enjoyable experience to be living with other students in the Kilachand Honors College,” he said. “Living in proximity both to freshmen and to sophomores promotes greater inter-class bonding and induces a warm community feeling.”

COM senior Anabelle Dwyer said that while living in Kilachand Hall may provide KHC students with an improved working environment, specialty residential communities have their drawbacks.

“The only downfall might be that they might not have the opportunity to meet as many people as they would have just because they are isolated with people they are probably going to have class with anyway,” Dwyer said. “I see the pros in working together, but I think there’s a con in not being in as diversified of an environment.”

Olivia Davis-Wilson, a COM junior, said residents of Kilachand Hall can benefit from one another academically.

“It’s beneficial for practical things,” she said. “You can share notes, you all have the same classes, things like that. Especially as a freshman, it’s helpful.”

Margaret Waterman contributed to the reporting of this article.

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