More than hearts are being rearranged at NIU; many classes are being relocated to accommodate those formerly held in Cole Hall.

The classes once held in Cole Hall were moved out of respect for the deceased, wounded and traumatized, said Joe Grush, acting vice provost for resource planning.

Many students have said they can’t go back to the building, he said.

Some classes in other buildings had to be moved to other rooms to help accommodate the large classes that were held in Cole, Grush said.

The Cole Hall classrooms are the largest lecture halls on campus. About 6,000 students had class in the facility this semester, Grush said.

The rearrangement was a size and scope issue and sometimes the locations of three or four classes had to be changed to accommodate class enrollment. Classes were rearranged to be as close as possible to the original location, he said.

“We want to make [the classroom rearrangement] as least disruptive for students as possible,” Grush said. “Whenever we could accommodate things, we did.”

Though no longer a crime scene, Cole Hall currently is in a lockdown condition, Grush said. The FBI handed control of the scene back to NIU and investigation of the crime scene is finished, he said.

The locks on the building also have been changed and the faculty offices located in the building have been moved, Grush said.

Grush said he heard NIU Police Chief Donald Grady say the crime scene was cleaned up to the point where a person unaware of the tragedy would be unable to tell anything happened in the room.