Although Suttle Hall has carried a poor reputation as “the vertical ghetto” for many years, its reputation may be changing.
In previous years, students, especially women, felt unsafe in Suttle’s vicinity, according to Adrienne Summerlot, spouse of Suttle’s resident director John Summerlot.
Having lived in Suttle with her husband since August 2001, Summerlot said that in 1997 she was uncomfortable walking past the hall, but now is proud to live in Suttle Hall.
Summerlot said that in previous years, pizza places refused to deliver there and residents were known to drop items such as Clorox and bricks from its balconies.
Suttle Hall director John Summerlot and his residents have worked to change their residence hall’s reputation. In fact, the Residence Hall Association named Suttle as Hall of the Year for 2001-2002.
The hall also won other awards, including the Overall Spirit Award for 2001 and Newsletter of the Year for 2001-2002. The Campus Outreach and Service Learning Center and the Starkville community recognized Suttle for its community service in 2001.
According to the Suttle Hall Association President Phillips Strickland, this turnaround of reputation coincided with the arrival John Summerlot. Strickland said that Summerlot played a major part in helping to clean up Suttle’s act.
“I’d rather live here than any other place on campus,” said Strickland.
Some students still have negative perceptions about the hall. One student said he would refuse to live in Suttle, while another said she thought Suttle was nasty and disgusting.
It is these negative views that the residents of Suttle Hall are trying to erase. In order to help residents feel more secure and to increase its ability to deal with emergencies, Suttle now has a police substation.
T.J. Harvey, the RHA vice president of external affairs and Suttle Hall resident, said the hall was a much safer place now that it has police.
He said people felt safer around Suttle, and he now sees people walking and jogging by the hall all the time. He credited part of the change to the sense of community that has developed among the wide range of residents of Sutte Hall.
However, some residents of Suttle said they had not seen many changes. Resident Ryan Adlington said he had not really noticed any changes in the hall.
“The elevators are constantly broken and the card (scanner) only works 10 percent of the time,” Adlington said.
Another resident, Michael Crenshaw, said he never really had any problems with the people of Suttle, but could not live in the residence hall any longer since he felt it was not a clean place. He also mentioned broken elevators as a continued problem.
Another resident mentioned the malfunctioning elevators, but also pointed out that maintenance was quick to fix it.
Not all of Suttle’s inhabitants were so critical, though. Cory Adams said there were a few changes in the past year.
“I have lived in worse neighborhoods than this,” he said. “I like it here. I live in Suttle by choice,” Adams said.
While the hall still has its problems, this may be the dawn of a new Suttle–one that is working to better itself, its campus, its community, and definitely one that is a lot less scary to passing students.