QCity Metro13%
Johnson C. Smith University begins demolition of Liston Hall dorm 55%
By Glenn H. Burkins13%
7/31/2026, 3:45:39 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Overconfidence Bias, and Optimism Bias, with Ambiguity (Equivocation) as the most egregious example at 29.9% saturation with 175 hits. Analysis detected 962 faulty-reasoning hits from 586 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 48.6% and a BS Rank of 55% (10,756 of 23,526 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 54.30% of the article peer group.
Johnson C.
Smith University began demolishing one of its signature dormitories this week, a process that will eventually make way for a redevelopment project with details still undetermined.
Workers began dismantling the 35,000-square-foot Liston Hall on Monday, just across Beatties Ford Road from the main Campus.
Built in 1962, the building had fallen into disrepair and could not be saved, JCSU President Valarie Kinloch told QCity Metro.
“To renovate Liston Hall is to spend resources that would probably equate to, or be very close to, what it would cost to really reimagine that entire space,” she said.
In a statement, the university acknowledged the generations of students who lived and studied there, but said its removal “symbolizes JCSU’s continued commitment to growth, innovation, and student success.”
The building's demolition is part of a campus-wide review of university facilities that began under Kinloch’s predecessor, Clarence Armbrister.
When Kinloch began her tenure in Aug. 2023, she began to review that master plan, with a special eye toward Liston Hall, named in honor of former JCSU President Dr.
Hardy Liston.
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The plan is to make space for us to vision and envision what we want, what needs to happen, and it's going to be efforts between Johnson C Smith University, the board [of directors] and the community,” she said.
“And so we don't have a definitive plan at the moment for what exactly will be there.”
Even as plans are unfinished, Kinloch said she envisions creating a “living-learning community” on the Liston space, a project that would include student housing, space for visiting faculty and guests, and amenities to increase foot traffic from the surrounding community.
Kinloch said university officials are hearing ideas from consultants, developers and private businesses that might be interested in leasing space.
“My hope is that we would explore possible ground leases for different businesses that contribute to the community that might possibly, you know, come to this area,” she said.
“It is bringing access to resources, spaces, and also different needs that we have as a community.”
Kinoch declined to give a timeline for making a decision.
“This is going to be a crucial year,” she said.
“We are forming a presidential working group that is going to be charged with really understanding our campus community’s needs, the future, looking towards sustainability.
“And so my hope is that by the end of this academic or fiscal year, we would have a better sense, if not before, of what we can envision,” she added, “and we will already have been in conversations with our board and with other people who could guide that work for us.”
Kinloch, who attended JCSU from 1992 to 1996, paused to reflect on her years there and her campus friends who lived in Liston Hall.
“It's time,” she said.
“It's time for us to remember the memories, the traditions, the friendships, all the stories, and then realize what we need to do to have a transformative space so we can enhance student life and strengthen the community and to be honest, to support our academic achievement.”
She added, “And my goal is, whatever we create, it needs to center our students, but it also needs to center their academic trajectory.
And bringing that into our residence halls and some of the spaces is going to be important.”
Liston Hall’s demolition comes just days after crews razed the Excelsior Club , another Beatties Ford Road landmark that’s slated for redevelopment.
Analysis
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