The fate of Wirtz House will be addressed within the next few weeks when NIU students, faculty and staff can express their opinions in open meetings about the house’s possible removal.

Members of the commons’ renovations committee will attempt to get “feedback” at the meetings about any symbolism or aesthetic value attached to the house, said Eddie Williams, vice president for finance and planning. The house is located in the Martin Luther King Memorial Commons.

The committee originally scheduled the meetings for early February to discuss possible reasons to save the house, he said.

Committee members “haven’t rushed” the Wirtz House meetings because renovation of the commons has been delayed for more than one year, Williams said.

Renovations are scheduled to begin in the summer of 1990. The original renovation plans included the removal of the house to provide space for a public free speech area, new landscaping and a statue of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

The University Resources for Women, the Women’s Studies Program and the Foreign Studies Office currently are located in the house. The Women’s Studies Program office will move into Reavis Hall at the end of this semester to obtain more office space than is available in the house.

“When we first started (planning the commons’ renovations), the committee was looking for any reason to save the house,” Williams said in a previous interview.

Williams said he contacted the original owners of the house. He said the Wirtz family approved the removal of the house, but requested a few of the house’s original furnishings.