I was delighted to read the first headline on page one of Wednesday’s issue of the Northern Star.

President Peters decided to get more input on what to do with the future of Cole Hall.

This should not be decided in such a short amount of time. NIU could take many other options, and students have voiced different ideas of what to do with the hall.

In the e-mail Peters sent out to NIU Wednesday, he said, “Our family has been injured, and we turn inward to comfort each other and gather strength for the journey ahead. The tremendous response from across our campus and the overwhelming appreciation we have gained for each other is a testament to the strong sense of community that defines NIU.”

In light of last week’s announcement to raze Cole Hall, I decided to conduct a short, un-official survey of some students congregating in the Holmes Student Center.

The questions asked were whether the students were for or against the razing of Cole Hall, what the student would do with the building if he or she personally had control over what happened to it and if the student knew someone personally effected by the tragedy.

The results:
Six students did not want to tear the building down. Of those students, three wanted to renovate the hall and have some sort of memorial in the building, and three wanted to clean it up for classes.

Two students did not have a clear opinion one way or the other, and declined to comment.

One student wanted to tear Cole Hall down and replace it with a new building.
Another student wanted to place a memorial in the hall’s place.

Five students declined to comment at all.

Some students did know someone personally affected in the tragedy, while other students did not.

While there are students who simply want to open the building back up, others support demolishing the hall and erecting a new building in its place. Students’ reasons for their opinions are almost as far and wide in range as their ideas of what exactly to do with the hall, and all sides have good reasoning.

For example, Josh Darrah, junior electrical engineering major, said, “If you rip out all the old seating and you re-write the place, and do all the stuff to make it new, that is only going to take a couple months. They can do it without shutting down half of campus, even if it takes Fall ‘08. It still doesn’t put bulldozers in the middle of campus.

It’s a logistical nightmare to tear down a building like that and build a new one, especially with several thousand students passing by.”

To open the building within the next five years for classes at the moment seems like a stretch. I’d like to see it remodeled and opened for the purposes of memorial and peace.

Though many students who have had classes in the building probably still have good memories from within its walls, the way students at NIU view the building has completely changed. To hold classes in such a tragic place is not an option for most students within the next few years minimally.

Peters’ e-mail to NIU yesterday summed up what needs to take place on this campus as well.

Before NIU takes any action, research must be done about what actually may be best done with the building for NIU. There needs to be a consensus for the student body to be at peace with the decision, a clear source of funding and a clear path of action for NIU to follow.

Until this point is reached, nothing can seriously be done regarding the future of Cole Hall.

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