Deferred funds will help renew Lincoln Hall

By Daily Illini Staff Report

Lincoln Hall could begin receiving a makeover after $9 million was allocated to fixing the historic building’s exterior after a Tuesday morning meeting of the Academic Facilities Maintenance Fund Assessment board.

“While we await funding from the state, we wanted to stabilize the building,” said Doris Reeser, capital maintenance planning coordinator for the University’s Department of Facilities and Services.

While the building needs substantial improvements, Reeser said, the University can only focus on a few aspects for the time being. The planned work will help prevent water from penetrating the roof.

The Lincoln Hall funds are part of a total $26 million the board allotted to deferred maintenance projects across campus.

Due to lack of funds to a building’s normal operating budget, the University must postpone certain maintenance on some structures.

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These buildings then receive deferred maintenance funds.

“Overall what we focused on were those things that were time-sensitive,” said student body president Jaclyn O’Day.

The majority of the work on the campus buildings set to benefit from the funds will involve replacing current lighting with more efficient methods.

“A lot of them are energy-type, energy reduction projects….There are a couple classroom projects,” Reeser said.

An electronic vote by administrators and students gave the board an accurate assessment of the significance of various projects to the campus community, Reeser said.

“Different factors for each of the 18 projects we had proposed were ranked on a scale from one to 100,” said O’Day.

“Near the top were projects that involved reducing our energy consumption and some major building renovations.”

David Kinley Hall is another recipient of the deferred maintenance funding.

Desks currently bolted to the floors of its classrooms will be removed and the walls of the hall will get fresh paint, O’Day said.

“Another project is replacing the patio in the Foreign Language Building because currently, as it is, water is leaking down into the basement where the computers are,” said O’Day.

Hannah Hess and Eric Steckling contributed to this report