Cole Hall to be replaced with Memorial Hall; Cost = $40 million
On Thursday Governor Blagojevich pledged to ask the state legislature for $40 million in funding to tear down Cole Hall and put up a new lecture building called Memorial Hall. The building could be done as early as December 2010 according to Melanie Magara, NIU university spokeswoman.
NIU just got some needed help to answer their quandary. There was a building on campus that no one is quite sure what to do with because they needed it. Do we keep it? Tear it down? Turn it into a memorial? Continue learning within it? Perhaps the university administration had no good answer. That’s when the state stepped up.
NIU, like many other state schools, has trouble getting capital funding, The Stevens building renovation, was just approved last year but the funds never got to NIU, though the building is decrepit and has been out of date for several years.
It would have been inconsiderate to resume classes in Cole according to some but that building was vital. The campus can’t afford to lose a building. There are very useful computer labs in the basement of that building that will either be transferred or temporarily moved.
Nothing stood out about this building except for maybe its lack of color with its green chairs and dark curtains. Its cold, concrete, slanted floors.
Perhaps the university should have considered turning the building into a memorial, something positive for those who attach special meaning to place.
For us at NIU, I think that place, Cole Hall, holds special significance. There are monuments erected, and battlefields set aside worldwide, some involving fewer deaths than we saw here on February 14. The place is solemn, and special. Having class there would be difficult.
What does everyone else think? Be heard. Comment here, petition the administration, talk to the people, like NIU President John Peters, and the other faces we have seen countless times on television over the last couple of weeks. The decision should be more yours than theirs.
Tags: blagojevich, Cole Hall, niu, niu shooting