Students who are not graduating this semester will be happy to know they might see a cleaned-up and beautified King Memorial Commons before they leave NIU.

After a six-month delay, caused by the Holmes Student Center recladding, the commons’ renovations will begin in May.

Soon the orange fencing will be removed and the crane will pull away, possibly allowing students to walk straight through the commons without the worries of bricks falling on their heads.

Although the commons will remain a construction site for a while, at least students know when the trucks finally pull away, students will have a “totally revamped” mall.

The $500,000 renovations will leave NIU with a renovated bus turnaround area and an expanded, landscaped mall area by the fall semester.

These long-awaited improvements are a necessity to the NIU environment. The portions of the jumbled mall area have been in blocked off since 1987.

The recladding of the tower was originally scheduled to be completed by Nov. 17.

Waiting for the student center tower to be completed before work begins on the commons was unavoidable.

But it is a relief to know that NIU will follow through on its renovation plans and make the appearance of this campus something to be proud of.

The NIU campus is in desperate need of aesthetic improvements and some general cleaning up. Hopefully the renovation plans will be successful and the campus will look unified.