The new Jamrich building may not yet be the most expensive addition to campus.

ASNMU president Katerina Klawes said she was informed the university has a $30 million budget for renovations to the Learning Resources Center. According to Klawes, an advisory committee has looked at a few budget options to-date, one of which reached $39.8 million, while the other reached $43.5 million.

“I personally feel the library should be the epicenter of the campus,” Klawes said, a junior secondary English education and theater major.  “Our focus should really be on academics, so I think if any building should be state-of-the-art, it should be the academic ones.”

Klawes said the current budgets are a work in progress. The LRC advisory committee needs to discuss which aspects are most important in the renovation plans.

The LRC houses the Lydia Olson Library, Central Upper Peninsula and NMU Archives, Audio-Visual Services, Public Radio 90, WNMU-TV 13, Help Desk, Micro-Repair, Academic Computing and Fieras restaurant, as listed on the NMU LRC homepage.

This July, discussions began to renovate the LRC building and better accommodate students with updated resources.

Kathy Richards, associate vice president of engineering, planning and facilities, said the advisory committee has met to discuss such renovations but were in the very preliminary stages of preparation. She refused to elaborate.

The advisory committee consists of individuals from departments including the engineering and planning/grounds, auxiliary services, dining services, broadcast and AV services, academic information, academic affairs, registration and scheduling and AIS and computing help desk, and student representative, Klawes.

Richards said the committee still needs to present the idea to the university Board of Trustees, which will take place Thursday, Sept. 25 and Friday, Sept. 26.

Eric Smith, director of broadcast and AV services for WNMU-TV 13 said the advisory committee is in the process of prioritizing the services to directly impact students. He also said the board has met to talk priorities, attach price tags and submit the proposal.

“The goal in the library renovations is to renew some of the technology systems in use in the building,” Smith said. “One of the things we do at WNMU-TV and FM is to work closely with students. It’s what we call ‘learning experience opportunities.’ We give them the opportunity to produce and direct on camera, and it’s a lot of what they find they use in their first jobs.”

Following the Board of Trustee’s approval, Klawes said the state proposal is due Friday, Oct. 31, leaving the committee with a little over a month to decide on the most important features to be included in renovations.

“From there it could take up to five years for our funding,” Klawes said. “But the good thing about this design, let’s say we submit it this year and give a rough estimate, and the state says, ‘we’ll give you $15 million, you have to come up with $15 million’ or whatever the magic number is. Every year we can change the design a little bit as long as we stay within the cost.”

According to Smith, the WNMU-TV 13 and FM studio space has not been renovated since the LRC building was constructed in the late 1960s.

“So they’re long overdue,” Smith said.