In an e-mail to the student body Tuesday, NIU President John Peters expressed a reconsideration of plans in regard to Cole Hall.

“…we must engage in a campus-wide discussion about the future of Cole Hall,” Peters said.

On Feb. 27, Peters and Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced a $40 million plan to raze Cole and construct a “Memorial Hall” in its place.

Peters said in Tuesday’s e-mail that NIU should remove Cole Hall as a classroom building, and he made this judgment after speaking with “scores of students, parents, faculty and alumni who told me they could not fathom returning to Cole Hall to teach or study.”

Peters did not mention the $40 million plan in the e-mail.

“Our answer should represent a consensus opinion formulated by all members of our campus community,” Peters said in the e-mail announcement. “We must decide whether to remove the building or keep it; to reopen it in its present form or change its purpose or configuration.”

Peters said Cole Hall was closed following the shootings through the end of this fiscal year. According to the e-mail, nearly 10,000 students in more than 150 classes have been affected by the Cole Hall closure.

The announcement also listed an e-mail address, [email protected], where members of the NIU community can submit opinions regarding the future of Cole Hall.

Peters’ e-mail comes after members of the NIU community expressed interest regarding Cole Hall’s future and the possibility of a campus memorial.

Administrators of the Facebook group “Preserve Cole Hall” contacted Sen. Brad Burzynski and informed him that the group was petitioning for a general assembly of the greater NIU community to discuss all options for Cole Hall’s future.

The group plans to spend the week collecting signatures on campus for this purpose.

State politicians’ responses

“President Peters and the NIU community are in the best position to move forward and we are going to back their efforts to do that in any way we can,” said Abby Ottenhoff, spokesperson for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whose $40 million proposal made last week has all but fallen through.

State Rep. Bob Pritchard stressed the need to “slow the process down and respect the tragedy.”

He said the state needs to be fiscally responsible, and reconsideration of the $40 million decision came after reviewing the initial proposal and led to the change of plans.

State Sen. Dave Syverson said he understands the school’s initial reaction.

“I would agree with Sen. Burzynski’s most recent comments that we need to hold off on this,” Syverson said.

“In light of the state’s financial situation and in light of response from the public, the last thing the school would want to do would be do something controversial and taking away from a memorial to students and a celebration of their lives.”

Syverson said suggestions of setting up a private scholarship in the name of the students would be more meaningful, while not costing the state and taxpayers funds “at a time when we need to pay our bills.”

“I don’t think they should raze Cole. It creates more negative public response which, in turn, takes away from what should be a positive response in wanting to do something for those students who lost their lives,” Syverson said.

Syverson said the governor probably should have waited for input from students and their families to make any announcements, so this issue would not have become so politicized.

Memorial Committee

President Peters’ e-mail also announced the creation of the Feb. 14 Memorial Committee, chaired by Mike Malone, vice president for Advancement . The group will include students, faculty, staff, families and alumni.

“Our goal here is to create a very special place on campus that will have dignity and be a place for reflection,” Malone said.

Malone added that the committee will be a large, inclusive group and will cite and solicit ideas from the NIU community. Malone’s goal is to have this done by the end of the semester and have a narrow group present a smaller number of ideas to the president by summer.

Malone said an e-mail address similar to the one for providing opinions on Cole Hall might be created.

“We need all the good ideas we can muster,” he said.