DeKALB — Renovations to the Stevens Building now have a timetable for its date of completion. The Stevens Building, located southwest of Cole Hall and Zulauf Hall, has been under construction since 2014 and has undergone multiple stoppages because of budget constraints.

The School of Theatre and Dance and Department of Anthroplogy are without dedicated classroom space and have moved their officers to the non-residential floors of Grant A Tower, and sporadically in other buildings throughout campus.

“The most realistic time of completion will be May or June in order to accomplish all the final outfitting and moves,” said John Heckmann, associate vice president of Facilities Management and Campus Services.

Construction to the Stevens Building stopped in 2015 when the Capital Development Board did not re-authorize the project’s funding.

Heckmann said the renovations will cost $23.7 million, although the cost is inflated because of issues related to the work stoppages.

“Every year the state has to reauthorize and reappropriate to continue to fund the project,” Heckmann said. “They didn’t do that in 2015. Last summer the project was reauthorized.”

The Stevens Building renovation is part of Illinois Jobs Now, a $1 billion fund that is put toward Ilinois’ public universities. The program was created in 2009 by former Gov. Pat Quinn and his Jump Start capital plan.

Once the renovations to the Stevens Building are finished, The College of Theatre and Dance and the Department of Anthropology will be able to move in.

The renovated Stevens Building will feature a larger theater for the School of Theatre and Dance productions and a larger workshop for theatre students to build themes for their productions. Once the Stevens Building opens, main shows will be run out of the new black-box theater and smaller shows will be run at a smaller corner stage.

“It’s difficult at times, but the [theatre] department has made the best out of their current situation,” said first-year theater major Samantha Welch. “It will definitely be nice to get into the Stevens Building.”

Welch said the theatre department currently runs all of their main stage shows out of Huntley Middle School, 1515 S. 4th St, with their studio shows being in the Diversions Lounge at Holmes Student Center.

“Hopefully more students will be able to come see our shows now,” Welch said.

The Department of Anthroplogy will feature a 330-seated lecture hall, along with dedicated bone storage.It will also feature five smart classrooms, rooms with updated technology.

Anthropology graduate student Mike Cook said the Grant Tower location makes it difficult for students to attend office hours.

“The centralized location is going to be more beneficial to everybody around,” Cook said. “It will help our research, and we will be more accessible to every student.”