As technology advances and changes, so does the life of a college student. The University bookstore is getting a facelift to become more modern and better fit the needs of students on campus.

University President Walter Harrison said, “People have all sorts of ways of getting books, either online, or electronically, or through the library, all that sort of thing. And there’s much more need, students have, I don’t know if it’s a need, but a desire to do things like buy more gear.”

The bookstore is finding that it does not need as much space as it used to and is looking to centralize all of its departments to one area.

Norman Young, Assistant Vice President of Facilities Planning and Management, said, “What we’re gonna do is take all of their operation and move it to the upper level only, or let’s call it the main level of the west wing, and we’re going to expand out into the current hallway, which in effect is dead space. It’s just used for back and forth, it’s not really used well. So we can expand their operations on the upper level which we will do. That vacates the lower level. That will be renovated for the architecture program within CETA.”

The lower level of the bookstore will be constructed specifically for the graduate architecture program which is now located off campus on Cottage Grove Road. Bringing this group of students back to campus is another big goal for the renovation.

Melissa Elliott, the bookstore manager, said, “A lot of the time when people hear the word renovation, they think the store will be closed. That’s not the case. The store is going to be open. We’ll have everything they need for their spring and summer terms.”

The renovation is scheduled to begin on March 16th and be finished by the end of August.