NIU awaits funding for renovation
By KATE SCHOTT
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kschott@daily-chronicle.com
The building where a campus shooting was carried out at Northern Illinois University last year remains shut as school officials await state funding to renovate the facility.
Cole Hall has been closed since Feb. 14, 2008, when a former NIU student walked into Room 101 and opened fire, killing five people and injuring 21 others before killing himself.
NIU President John Peters has proposed renovating Room 101 to support non-classroom activities while the building’s other lecture hall, Room 100, would be renovated but still used for instruction.
Peters also has called for updates to the interior and facade of the more than 40-year-old building and has proposed building a new 7,800-square-foot, 400-seat auditorium in the central campus area to replace lost classroom space.
That proposal came after getting input from students, staff, alumni, donors and families, Peters wrote in a May 7, 2008, letter to the NIU community. Most said they did not want to see Cole Hall demolished but expressed a desire to have the building remodeled to look different.
Peters said school administrators have worked hard to accommodate the classes that usually meet in Cole Hall. About 12,000 students have been displaced.
But he’s also adamant that funding for the project come from the state, because it is the responsibility of the state to pay for academic buildings.
“I believe the state should give that to us,” he said last month during a University Council meeting. “I am not going to give up on that.”
About $7.7 million to renovate Cole Hall was included in a $34 billion capital projects proposal presented last year to the Illinois General Assembly. State Sen. Brad Burzynski, R-Rochelle, and state Rep. Robert Pritchard, R-Hinckley, introduced measures in their respective chambers that would provide the funding for Cole Hall.
NIU spokeswoman Melanie Magara said the university is hopeful that funding for the building will be included in a statewide capital bill that lawmakers are said to be putting together this year.
Burzynski said his goal is to have it included in the capital bill, and he is more optimistic that lawmakers might pass one this year. He said he does not anticipate introducing separate legislation for the funding because “our bills didn’t go any place” last year.
Pritchard said he plans to encourage Gov. Pat Quinn, as well as his fellow lawmakers, to provide the funding through a capital bill.
“Given this emergency situation, I feel the state has an obligation,” he said.
