With funding for education ranking as the number one problem facing Illinois for the third straight year, it is refreshing to see NIU and the NIU Foundation working together to promote a better-enriched learning atmosphere.

The Board of Regents, on behalf of NIU, has contracted to buy the former Palmer Music Building from the foundation for $650,000. The building will be remodeled for its new dwellers, WNIU, WKDI and the Northern Illinois Radio Information Service.

Although WNIU’s programming is not geared toward a student market, the new facility will increase WNIU’s programming capabilities as well as the professionalism of WKDI.

Unfortunately, questions surrounding conflict of interest, the building’s structural integrity and a final price tag of more than $1.3 million loom over the project’s completion like a hawk circling its prey.

The building needs a new roof and needs work to stop a foundation wall from caving in, among other minor inconveniences. At least the basement won’t be flooded as long as the two sump-pumps are working.

Anything is possible with renovations, and the building’s open spaces will help in remodeling the long-empty retail store into the sophisticated NIU Broadcast Center.

But a building described by the project’s chief architect as being in “very poor condition” will always lead to questions. Was remodeling, instead of building, the best plan to follow?