Some residents on the first floor of Anderson Hall say they dislike the newly refurbished lounge because it does not have couches and is often locked or unavailable when residents want to use it.
"It's nice, but it's not special," Anderson first floor resident Joseph Clark, a sophomore in the Kogod School of Business said. "I kind of hate it because it's locked all the time."
Erin Mulcahy, a sophomore in Kogod, and Molly Cohen, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said since the lounge was remodeled last October, first floor residents are not allowed to use their lounge as often as other floors use their own lounges.
"We completely lost our lounge," Cohen said. "We get told to go off to another lounge."
The crew of "My Celebrity Home," a program on the Style Network, renovated the lounge and reopened it Oct. 8, The Eagle previously reported.
Residents said if the lounge is not locked, meetings are often held in it.
Cohen and Mulcahy said because the lounge is often unavailable, they have to cook their food in other Anderson lounges. They also said they do not have a suitable place to wash their dishes.
"The lounge is the only place I have to wash my dishes," Mulcahy said. "I'm sick of washing my dishes in the bathroom."
Hannah Wu, resident director for Anderson Hall, said residents might be confusing the lounge being closed for hall council meetings with the lounge being closed all the time.
Wu, who is in charge of reserving the new lounge for meetings, said only Housing and Dining programs are allowed to reserve the lounge. Sororities, fraternities and AU clubs cannot reserve it, she said.
She said the residents might be concerned about the many recent resident assistant selection meetings that have been conducted in the first floor lounge.
"All other times, the residents can use the lounge however they want to," Wu said.
Rebecca Krichinsky, the program and administrative resident assistant for the South Side residence halls, said Anderson's first floor residents have access to the lounge any time they want.
Krichinsky said she and Anderson Resident Assistant Justin Angotti, a senior in the School of Public Affairs, sent a videotape to the Style Network telling the producers to make over their lounge because resident professor John Richardson needed a space to host dinners for the residents. Krichinsky said the Style Network called AU about one week before they did the renovation and began shooting the show on Oct. 5.
"It was exciting to be able to do something for John and to see the lounge's transformation into a place that's a little homier," Angotti said.
Krichinsky said she and Angotti went with the show's designer to take pictures to hang in the lounge and to help pick out the furniture. She said about 20 AU students helped paint the lounge.
"We were very involved but they kicked us out Friday night," she said, because the Style Network wanted to surprise the students.
The designers for the show worked all day Saturday, Oct. 7. They filmed Krichinsky and Angotti's reactions to the room before it was finished, Krichinsky said.
Krichinsky said before the Style Network redesigned the lounge it looked like every other lounge in Anderson.
"I couldn't imagine how they could take this space that we have and make it into something else," Krichinsky said in reaction to the lounge's new look. "All students are coming to this lounge because it's a more interesting atmosphere to study in."
Angotti said he felt the lounge renovation turned out well.
"It's nice to see that it stayed the way it was after they left," he said. "We were concerned that it might start to look bad, but it hasn't. Everything that is supposed to be in the lounge is still there."
The lounge now includes a bar counter with bar stools and a long table with black folding chairs.
Yet some first floor residents don't feel the same excitement about the lounge.
"I hate this lounge," said Zach Laris, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs. "I can never use it. Everybody but our floor likes this lounge."
Cohen said some of the chairs in the new lounge broke and the old lounge had comfortable couches.
First floor resident and SPA sophomore Ravi Bharwani said he does not like the lounge because it has couches without back rests.
Cohen said the designers could have made the lounge a lot more conducive to college life.
"I didn't need it to be redone," she said. "It greatly fell short of what I expected. It's a cold area that maybe we'll get to use if someone else isn't using it."
AU's episode of "My Celebrity Home" premiered Dec. 13 on Style Network and continues to air during late nights.
The producers made AU officials and the show's participants sign contracts that said they will not be on any other makeover shows until this October, according to Krichinsky.
