The two groups leaving the soon-to-be-demolished Wirtz House are keeping their central location and one group is expanding its program.

The foreign studies department is moving from the centrally located house Wednesday and the University Resource Center for Women will leave on the last day of this month. The Wirtz House is scheduled to be torn down by mid-May, said Patricia Perkins, NIU assistant vice president of Finance and Planning.

The two groups will spend the summer working in temporary office space in Altgeld Hall before relocating to their final destinations in Williston Hall and the old Arndt house.

Women’s Center Director Sharon Howard said her program will move from Altgeld “pending the completion of the property at the corner of Normal Road and Lincoln Highway.” Perkins said “we hope to have everyone from the women’s center settled in by the fall semester.”

The Women’s Center, which now shares space in the Wirtz House with foreign studies, will be the sole occupant of the 6,400-square-foot house, although University Press will use the house’s basement for storage, Perkins said.

The Women’s Center is expanding and needs the added space the old Arndt house offers. “We’re seeing our program enlarge due to recommendations of a presidential commission on the status of women on college campuses,” Howard said.

After a year-long study, the commission recommended that NIU establish a comprehensive women’s center. “Right now, we’re a small program and the new all-embracing program will serve all women at NIU,” Howard said.

Howard said she has no problems with moving from the Wirtz House to the old Arndt house and is “very pleased” with the new location.

The foreign studies department also will leave the brick house in the middle of the King Memorial Commons and relocate to a suite of offices in Williston.

Programs Coordinator of International Studies Ines DeRomana is pleased with the new locations and said Altgeld and Williston are both centrally located, which is what her department originally wanted. “I really don’t mind (Altgeld and Williston) not being as centrally located as the Wirtz House,” she said.

“I’m a little sad about leaving, but I feel worse” about the demolition of the Wirtz House, she said.