Lakeland’s old child care center, located between the suites, will likely be turned into a computer lab and recreation area by next fall.

If current plans go through, a kitchen and lounge area with sofas, tables, chairs, cabinets, and counter space will be installed on the east side of the building to be used by student living in the suites. The west side of the building will contain a Skype language lab and the new rooms for The Mirror and The Spectrum.

“The primary driver here was that we had some free space where the daycare used to be, and it’s becoming very crowded in Chase, so we tried to find a solution,” Vice President of Administration Dan Eck said.

Eck said he, the other vice presidents, and President Stephen Gould will make the final decision on whether to pass the plan soon.

”Once we have the final plan and associated budget for it, we’ll take a look at the project again. We do have some funds we use each year for “smallish” projects like this, and we might be able to allocate some funds from a donor to this project as well, at least the part relating to the language lab,” he said.

Eck said they decided to take on this project for a few reasons.

“There are countless places or programs around campus where we could use these resources. This seemed like a good time for this particular project – it will free up some classroom space in Chase, provide a dedicated language lab, as well as space for The Mirror and Spectrum, and the students who live over there will have a kitchen/lounge area. I’m hoping we can pull it off and be ready by fall.”