Northern Illinois University officials hope they'll get another chance at state money to remodel the lecture hall where five students were gunned down during a Valentine's Day shooting spree.

They wanted to begin construction this year and have Cole Hall reopened by 2010, but that's unlikely without a new capital construction program. State lawmakers are gridlocked on a capital program and left town Saturday without approving one.

School officials said they are optimistic funding will come later this year after receiving assurances from top lawmakers that they'll try to get a capital agreement — with Cole Hall funding — approved by the fall.

Until then, the school hopes to get $2.6 million in federal grants to offset some of the mounting costs related to the shooting — a price tag estimated at between $8 million and $10 million.

The money will help pay for things like classroom upgrades, mental health services and emergency planning, said Harold Kafer, a dean at the school working on recovery efforts. NIU could get about $500,000 in August and is still applying for the other $2.1 million.

"It won't pay for everything but anything is going to help," Kafer said. "We will recover as many of those costs from federal and state aid as we can, and then we will have the difficult challenge internally of absorbing the rest of the costs."

Cole Hall has been empty since Feb. 14, when Steven Kazmierczak fatally shot five students and wounded 18 others before killing himself.

The shooting has forced campus planners to figure out where to move students. The brick building was the backbone of the campus and served 12,000 students a year. Officials have reshuffled space and upgraded classrooms with computers and audio and video equipment.

School officials initially wanted to tear down Cole Hall, create a memorial in its place and build a new $40 million structure. But that proved so unpopular they returned with a trimmed down proposal.

The new $7.73 million plan calls for an updated facade of Cole Hall and to change the use of the classroom auditorium where the killings took place. It also includes a new 7,800-square-foot, 400-seat auditorium in the center campus area.

Lawmakers tried to include NIU's plan in the construction program they've been negotiating for years. But the latest effort died when the House blocked the gambling expansion to pay for the program.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is trying again to reach a capital agreement but it's unclear if he can work that out with lawmakers over the next few months.

Rep. Robert Pritchard said he'll continue pushing for money to remodel Cole Hall through other construction dollars if no one budges on the capital program.

"That's something the governor could do if he wanted to, almost immediately," said the Hinkley Republican. "That money is out there and we ought to continue to try and work for it."

Spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff wouldn't say if Blagojevich would support providing money out of other funds.

"Our focus right now is on getting that (capital) bill passed," she said.

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