NIU’s summer face-lift is right on schedule, and even though all the projects may not be visible to the public, the university staff is keeping busy.

The Grant tutoring center and the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center are the two big projects NIU is focusing on this summer, said Bob Albanese, associate vice president of Finance and Facilities.

The $6.2 million alumni center, which broke ground Oct. 16, is scheduled to be finished by Homecoming weekend. If that happens the construction will have been completed in exactly one year.

The Grant tutoring center is a state-of-the-art facility that will be located in Grant Towers to help with various courses and will be open to all students. It is scheduled to open at the beginning of the fall semester.

The Engineering Building is undergoing construction for an additional clean room, but work just started on the building at the beginning of the summer and will continue through the fall semester, Albanese said.

Smaller projects are still in the works around campus as well.

The Visual Arts Building and Swen Parson Hall are both receiving two new smart classrooms that will be online by the fall semester.

“Smart classrooms are the No. 1 priority over the summer,” Albanese said. “Over 50 percent of the classrooms on campus are now smart classrooms because it’s what the students need.”

While the larger projects, such as the alumni center and the addition to the Engineering Building, are contracted out, smaller projects like the smart classrooms are done by university staff.

The Visual Arts Building will also receive a new set of concrete steps leading up the main entrance. That project is set to be completed by the end of August.

Several landscaping projects are also in the works.

The million-dollar plus DuSable turnaround which debuted in the fall of 2004 is undergoing some changes to better suit students’ needs and improve the landscaping in the area.

“We were able to find out which way students were moving and what paths they were taking to get from Point A to Point B,” Albanese said. “We are going to try to make it so students know exactly where they can and cannot go.”

With the large amount of students cutting across the lawn to get to DuSable faster, paths were worn down and plants began to die.

The intramural fields on the west side of campus are being upgraded as well. In past years, the lack of ability to get water to the fields caused problems. This summer, the fields are being fertilized, leveled-out and made safer for students and athletic teams that practice on them.

The juice bar in the Campus Recreation Center is scheduled to be completed within the next several weeks and will offer healthy food and drinks. Students will not have to swipe their NIU One card to gain access to the juice bar, seeing as it will be located within the main entrance to the Rec.

A kiosk will be placed across from Altgeld Hall in front of Lowden Hall on Castle Drive. It will be one of the few maps located on campus.

“People who come in the main entrance to the university and need to find a specific building on campus are lost because there aren’t any maps or directions,” Albanese said.