Other construction projects on campus have delayed the progress of the University’s first parking garage.
Renovations of both Himes Hall and the Pentagon Dining Hall have slowed the process, but a final decision on the parking garage’s plans will be decided in several weeks.
“The construction will be dependent on the dining halls being open,” said Gary Graham, director of the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation.
Graham said because of 459 Commons being remodeled this past semester, the University had to keep two cafeterias open.
He also said with 459 Commons now open and Highland Dining Hall closed this semester, no one can get into the Pentagon until after the spring semester because the computer lab in there is being transferred to the new testing center in Himes.
Graham said the contractor for the testing center in Himes was fired, and finding someone else to finish the job prolonged the plans for reopening the Pentagon, which would allow the demolishing of Highland Dining Hall.
The parking garage plans have shown various options for the future structure.
“The drawing of the plans takes several months,” Graham said. “It requires putting up the schematic design, having the state review the plans, and it will take nine to 10 months alone to put something together to tell the contractors what to build as well as get an estimate on the cost.”
He said bids for contractors can start once the plans are finalized, and construction can begin possibly as early as December.
The current plans call for Highland Dining Hall, the Women’s Center and the African American Cultural Center to be torn down.
But Graham said they have not finalized the plans to tear down the Women’s Center and African American Cultural Center.
“We want to get the representatives and task groups of the two student organizations to review the plans and ideas,” Graham said. ”If they don’t like them, we’ll go back to the original plan, which didn’t call for both student centers to be taken down.”
Graham and representatives from both centers met in late December to look at the current plans.
“As long as they replace the two student centers, I’m for it because both are essential to the diversity on campus,” said Patrick Tracy, mechanical engineering sophomore. 
“It sounds like it’s going to provide a lot of parking spaces, especially living on the east side of campus.”
The new site will consist of a five-level parking garage, a two-level bookstore and both the Women’s Center and AACC being adjacent to the garage.
The bookstore in the Student Union will be moved from its current location and be put in the garage. 
Graham said moving the bookstore will free up space in the Union for more student programs.
Azad Hussain, biological sciences freshman, said the parking garage will be a valuable resolution to the parking congestion on campus.
“If the students currently living on campus go through such a conundrum to find a remotely decent parking spot, what can we expect in 2009 when all freshmen will be required to reside in dorms, not to mention all of the upperclassmen?” Hussain said.
—-Contact Louis Pelletteri at [email protected]