NIU Needs Answers

The NIU community has stepped up to halt the proposed Memorial Hall project.

NIU Graduate Student in anthropology Amy Genova is one of several students fighting for their right to comment on whether to demolish Cole Hall.

A Facebook group she started called “Preserve NIU’s Cole Hall” has grown in membership and a petition has been started. This petition has amassed more than 700 signatures by reaching out to students through Facebook and then getting signatures at the MLK Commons. The petition seeks to give students a right to have a say in the outcome of Cole.

“This is just to make sure that we have that community forum in order to discuss why Cole Hall should or shouldn’t be demolished.” said Genova.

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It’s weird. Today when walking to classes I had a hard time believing something so tragic ever happened here. Security has been minimized, the counselors are out of classrooms, the dogs aren’t walking around campus . Yes; It’s a good thing that some form of ‘normalcy’ is coming back, but the one thing that continues to puzzle me is the debate over Cole Hall.

Looking at it, you would never think something so horrific occurred inside. It looks deserted and untouched. When President Peters asked me what I thought should be done to it, I told him I simply just didn’t know. Part of me feels as if it’d be best to just tear it down. I, for one, know I could never sit in that lecture hall ever again.
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