The Grant Towers renovation project, which has been on NIU’s list of things to do for a few years now, has been pushed back yet again.

The purpose of the project is to have the residence hall renovated to the caliber of Stevenson Towers.

Three years have passed since the first murmurs of the renovations were heard, and many people are anxious to know why it’s taking so long.

Linda Tillis, associate director at Student Housing and Dining Services, said the hold-up is because of finances.

“We’ve had a vision for this for quite a long time, but we still have to have the funding,” she said. “There’s a lot more aspects that need to be added and approved. And of course, we need to have new input from the students because so much time has gone by.”

Third-year students may remember first hearing about the project while they were freshmen living in Grant.

“I think that the whole project is pretty messed up,” said Phillip Kidd, a senior industrial technology major. “[Student Housing and Dining] are charging so much money to live there, but they can’t even keep it sanitary.”

Vanessa Germaldi, a junior early childhood development major, thinks the renovations should be at the top of NIU’s list.

“Since so many people live in Grant, they should make the renovations more of a priority,” she said. “I mean, they’ve been talking about this since I was a freshman three years ago.”

Some students, like junior marketing major Brian Jones, are a bit more understanding about the length of the project.

“I think they are using the budget to renovate the things that need to be renovated, like the academic buildings,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair, but I can understand why they are doing that stuff first.”

It will be a few years before renovations begin.

“We haven’t actually scheduled the project, so the earliest it could begin is 2005,” said Bob Albanese, associate vice president of finance and facilities. “We’ve been looking at other priorities that at this time are higher than the wholesale renovation of Grant.”

The priority projects include West Campus renovations with heating and cooling systems, upgrading a lot of the equipment and updating air-conditioning systems in Stevenson, he said.

“We would love to get started on that project, and this year we discussed what kind of time line we can put together for the project,” Albanese said. “Also, it is a matter of funding, because this is a rather expensive project. Stevenson cost about $18 to $20 million, and Grant will be about the same, if not more.”

The most likely source for project funding would be the state budget, but after June’s higher education cutbacks – which cost NIU more than $13 million – the availability of future funding will be unknown until legislators set a new budget in May of 2003.

The project will only take one year to complete once it’s started, Albanese added.