Upgrades to the Campus Activities Center Theater will cost $20 million in total, the Student Government Association adviser confirmed Tuesday. Students may pay higher fees in the future to pay for the renovations, or the university may ask for a bond.
The Senate only voted on Phase 1 of the CAC Theater renovations, which would cost $300,000 — $150,000 from the Student Government Association and the Rhatigan Student Center Board of Directors each. Wang and SGA Advisor Gabriel Fonseca told the Senate that the full project would cost $8 to $12 million.
Executive director of the RSC, Kevin Konda, said the total project cost was $20 million.
Fonseca clarified in an email to The Sunflower that the correct number is $20 million. He said his $8 to $12 million figure excluded the costs for additional square footage to the theater as well as an elevator and lower-level upgrades.
“I was so focused on the stage and the entrance I forgot about that part of the project, but yes, that’s included (too),” Fonseca said in the email.
When describing the full project to the Senate, Fonseca did mention the additional square footage, elevator and lower-level upgrades to the green room.
Konda said that he would like the full project to be completed “within the next three to four years.”
That means that the remaining pieces of the project — totaling around $19.7 million — would have to be done within four years.
When asked where that money would come from, Konda and Fonseca provided different options that they believe will be explored. Fonseca said that zeroing out SGA’s special projects fund or increasing student fees would be part of the conversations in SGA.
“That’d be the only avenue to go to and get the funding on that would be through the student fee process, probably a bonding on it to be able to get it to that level,” Konda said.
