Chatham University announced on July 1st, 2024 that they will be closing their Eden Hall campus' only residence hall, Orchard Hall, effective this upcoming academic year.

Upcoming residents already made the $150 housing deposit to move in on August 24. Almost 40 students are displaced by the board's decision and last-minute notice, a portion of whose jobs are now insecure. Students scheduled classes around living here and found jobs for their time there. The university even hired and signed contracts with Residential Assistants for Orchard Hall and does not have a concrete plan in place to honor those contracts.

The university is forcing the displaced students to move 45 minutes south to the main campus with a limited shuttle schedule as provided transportation, on the contingency that university housing will be available and accessible for every student. Orchard Hall was the most affordable and one of only two ADA-accessible dorm halls university-wide. Students are considering dropping out of their programs because they no longer have the housing they were promised.

The Board of Trustees has made this decision without any notice to the student body that the closure of Orchard was being discussed. The lack of transparency from administration decisions has continuously been an issue university-wide among students, even being pointed out during the most recent university town hall meeting. 

Orchard Hall is the heart of the Eden Hall campus and the home of the Sustainability Living Learning Community (LLC). The university advertises this campus and dorm to draw media attention, win awards and recruit new students. Orchard's closing has yet to be updated on university websites or social media outside of notifying the students, and still has information advertising Orchard as a residence across all platforms.

This dorm provides housing for much of the student farm team, which donates fresh produce to local food banks during surpluses. Additionally, the campus facilitates community meals, research towards food insecurity and local ecology, and generates patron revenue for the local economy. All of this will become more difficult, or cease to exist entirely, without Orchard Hall. 

After many program and budget cuts this past year alone, we need to protect the uniqueness that Eden Hall provides to Chatham and the greater Pittsburgh community. Help us save our home and ensure future generations of environmentalists have a place in Pittsburgh.