At a town hall meeting Wednesday night, Binghamton University officials discussed the latest plans for the Old University Union renovations with students, faculty and staff.

According to the plans, the bowling alley will stay at eight lanes, the student run radio station WHRW will receive storage space and room for students to wait for the bus by the South lounge will be created.

The newest plans, which can be found on the Physical Facilities Web site, will be paid for under a $13.3 million state capital fund.

‘These discussions are important to the process because we need to hear your concerns at these early stages,’ said James VanVoorst, vice president for administration.

The more revisions are made to the plans, the officials said, the more expensive the process will become because of the cost of restructuring the renovations.

At Wednesday night’s meeting, the administrators accepted questions, but VanVoorst admitted that the plans were being met with less skepticism than they had in the past.

The only visible change to the exterior of the Old Union, said Karren Bee-Donohoe, long-term planning director for Physical Facilities, will be a glass addition to the building where people wait for buses. This glass walled-in enclosure will be where the overhang is in front of the Union, and people will be able to look out and see the bus through windows once the plans are completed.

‘Where will students wait while the room is being erected as it will be in the middle of winter?’ one student asked.

‘I was afraid of that question, we are currently still working on that,’ said Bee-Donohoe.

Some in attendance were concerned with the fate of new programming space in the building, and plans for the student groups who will lack space to put on their programs during the first phase of the renovations next fall.

The Mandela Room, Old Union Hall and room 133 are offline for an entire year.

Renovations to the Mandela Room and Old Union Hall will include double doors linking the two. Foldable walls, which BU officials hope will be soundproof, will be installed in the Mandela Room.

Some students were concerned over the viability of using this system.

Because the spaces ‘ which are used almost every day for programming purposes ‘ will be temporarily unavailable, some students submitted questions about provisions next year.

An idea offered by one student recommended the creation of a bubble over the tennis courts which could possibly hold as many students as one of the two rooms can.

Officials said there was no immediate plan for a replacement space, and VanVoorst said that students and faculty should be prepared to travel a bit further and deal with a bit more inconvenience as the project goes underway.

An Alternate Space Committee led by Eric Backlund, director of the Events Center, and composed of faculty from different departments, was created to help solve the spacing problems throughout the Union renovations. SA Vice President Joe Danko is the student representative on the committee.

‘In regards to space for next year ‘ the Mandela Room, Old Union Hall and 133 are huge programming spaces that will be very hard to make up for,’ Danko said. ‘But with a little help from different building supervisors on campus and with cooperation from the students and administration, we’ll be able to make it work.’

Danko said the committee has made progress and is expecting to forward its suggestions to the Space Committee, which is comprised of the administrators, during the upcoming break.

‘We are about to make a recommendation to the Space Committee,’ Danko said. ‘We cannot make any final decisions.’

Danko said there may be other efficient solutions, like utilizing buildings already on campus, instead of the tennis court bubble idea, but hopes that the latter remains an option.