Study spaces and student lounges are about to become even more limited on campus. A week after the announcement of the three-year library closing beginning in summer 2005, the plans for the new Ohio Union were unveiled at the Council of Graduates Students’ meeting on Friday.

The $103 million, 36-month, 280,000-square-foot project was met with mixed reactions from the graduate representatives. The new facility would require the Ohio Union to be demolished and limit student space on campus.

Tracy Stuck, director of the Ohio Union, said she was surprised by the amount of questions and debate the presentation caused.

“People were taking it really seriously,” she said.

The presentation recapped the results of an October 2002 feasibility study, which was conducted to grasp student needs and wants for a new student union.

The process has been difficult, Stuck said. The new facility would not open in time for current students to use, making it difficult to predict what future students will want, she said.

About 8,000 students, faculty, and staff took part in the study. The students listed a movie theater, coffee bar, late night food service and ATM as the top amenities in the new building. Faculty and staff indicated outdoor patios and seating areas, post office, coffee bar and OSU events ticket office as their top priorities.

The other big plan for the new union is a 1,200-seat theater that would serve as an outdoor amphitheater during the summer and a lecture hall in the winter. The facility would be modeled after the PromoWest Pavilion.

“We have to go back and gauge what students want,” Stuck said.

But all these luxuries come with a price tag. A chunk of the $103 million will come from students’ checkbooks. Stuck said at this point the exact amount is not determined.

“The fee really could be between $15 and $45,” she said.

But Kerry Hodak, vice president of the Council of Graduate Students, said students will need to determine their readiness to pay for the services they want.

“(Students) have to decide what you want and if you’re willing to pay for it,” Hodak said.

The new union is tentatively slated to open in 2008, and students would not pay the fee until the building is open and operating. During the construction, the offices and services in the Ohio Union would be relocated. Stuck said the process of finding a temporary facility has already begun.

Hodak said advocates of the new union are pushing for the construction to be placed on the university development offices list of priorities. This would mean the construction of the new union would be the second focus of OSU, behind the library.

Although the Ohio Union will be destroyed, a part will be preserved. The chiller system, which provides the air-conditioning to the building, is the oldest still in use in the country and the manufacturer, the Carrier Company, plans to place it in a museum.