About 40 residents of Yuma Hall spoke out last week against a proposal to eliminate Yuma's status as an honors hall and bestow the designation on a newer hall in its place.

Considering the high praise residents have for the hall and the high percentage of return residents, there seems little reason to move the honors designation to a different hall.

Residence Life considered the possibility because officials are discussing a renovation of the hall that would turn five of the seven study lounges into bedrooms. That change would allow 40 more students to live in the hall.

In a perfectly reasonable gesture, Residence Life Director Jim Van Arsdel then considered moving the honors designation to a newer hall, presumably so the honors students would have more study space.

But at a meeting last week, residents, or "Yumans," said thanks, but no thanks. They want to stay right where they are.

Inflexible? Maybe a little.

But the fact is, Yuma Hall exemplifies the mission of university residence halls. It provides a tight-knit community for new students and gives them a healthy environment in which to study.

Many Yumans enjoy living there so much that they come back for a second year. Almost half the residents are living there for the second time.

The hall itself appears a little rundown and musty, but its residents said last week they don't mind. Those conditions just add to the hall's charm.

So with all these factors in play, Van Arsdel should listen to the residents and not mess with a winning formula.

The community atmosphere could probably be maintained in a different hall, where residents could take advantage of the nicer facilities, but there seems to be no compelling reason to disrupt Yuma's success.

Besides, Yuma's run-down condition would probably make it difficult to market to students not looking for a specific environment from a residence hall. The same doesn't hold true for the new halls, which will contain far nicer amenities.

For Van Arsdel, the wise move here would be to listen to the Yumans and keep the honors designation right where it is.

Opinions are determined by the Wildcat opinions board and written by one of its members. They are Kristina Dunham, Brett Fera, Caitlin Hall and Jeff Sklar.