Sophia Tran

Nygreen Hall has been a part of California Lutheran University’s campus since the 1970s. Now, it could face demolition.

California Lutheran University announced the closure of two academic buildings, Nygreen Hall and the D Building, in a June 5 email from Ryan Van Ommeren, associate president of Planning and Services.

Van Ommeren said decreasing university enrollment eliminated the need for the classrooms in the two buildings, and that closing them is helping the university save on utilities and maintenance expenses. All HVAC and housekeeping services have been terminated.

“[Nygreen Hall is] a temporary building and hard to maintain and expensive to maintain,” Van Ommeren said.

Nygreen Hall is a modular building—a temporary building—not meant for long-term use, built in the 1970s, which has made it “not a very pleasant learning environment,” Van Ommeren said.

“[Nygreen Hall] has always been inefficient, it’s always been hard to keep the roof from leaking and such,” Van Ommeren said.

According to the Facility Operations and Planning Fact Book, Nygreen Hall contains six classrooms, six offices, two storage rooms and two unisex restrooms. The exterior restrooms will remain in operation, according to the June 5 email.

Van Ommeren said the reopening of Ahmanson Science Center following significant renovations was a contributing factor as well, as some of the classes were moved there.

The D Building will only be closed for this year as the university prepares to house graduate school classes previously held at Cal Lutheran’s satellite campuses, Van Ommeren said. The facility contains 21 academic spaces, spanning computer labs, classrooms and offices, according to the Fact Book.

Cal Lutheran has three satellite campus locations based in Santa Maria, Oxnard and Westlake Village, although the latter two are being decommissioned and relocating to the main campus following the 2025-26 school year.

As a result of the building closures, clubs have had to change their meeting locations. One club that met in Nygreen Hall prior to its closure is Delight, Cal Lutheran’s chapter of Delight Ministries, a national all-female college ministry.

Arianna Henriquez, team director and dates coordinator of Delight, has been a member of the club since her first year and is entering her third as an officer.

“We’ve always used Nygreen so it was definitely, like, a bummer to hear that they were taking it offline and that we couldn’t use it anymore,” Henriquez said.

Delight has since moved to Peters Hall, although Henriquez said Nygreen provided the club with more space to operate.

“We loved Nygreen because we had a lot of space and we could do a lot with the room,” Henriquez said.

Another club that met in Nygreen Hall before its closure was the FILO Club, a student organization centered around highlighting Filipino culture and heritage.

“Now that it’s closed, I mean, I wouldn’t say I’m too upset about it, but it’s just, like, a–it’s just a change to me,” said Jayden Baltazar, co-president of FILO Club.

Baltazar said that the FILO club had been meeting in Nygreen Hall for as long as he could remember. Now, they meet in the Kingsmen Room in the Student Union.

Baltazar said that he would be alright if Nygreen Hall remained closed in the future, because the change has not caused many complaints among the members of the FILO club.

Van Ommeren said the university will not rule out demolishing Nygreen Hall or using the building as an alternate revenue stream if the opportunity presents itself.

“But I will say though, like, new ideas come up all the time. So…we’ll see,” Van Ommeren said.