CMU’s Board of Trustees made a great decision Thursday when it approved more than $8 million to renovate the Bovee University Center and Ronan Hall.

Eight million bucks sounds like a lot, but the reward this project offers far outweighs the risk.

And everyone, from students to faculty to administrators, should like the result.

Whenever money is tossed around at this university, eyebrows always are going to raise.

But this wasn’t the case after Thursday’s decision.

This was something John Kulhavi, vice chair of the board, has envisioned for years. When he was chair of the board the past few years, the idea of renovating the UC always was a topic of discussion when he would meet with this board before Board of Trustees meetings. He’d ask us for feedback and ideas, taking our input seriously.

Now that the project actually is on its feet, it’s good to see the university still is focused on student input.

Officials said the first phase will involve a lot of student input, something it already has gathered. A survey was e-mailed to CMU students a few weeks ago, with the questions focused on how and what students like to eat.

The university is sure to use those results and much more feedback to ensure what goes into the UC, from fast food to MP3 player charging stations to bowling, will appease students.

But what’s even better about Thursday’s announcement is the university also is willing to shell out $3.3 million more to renovate Ronan Hall.

We’ve mentioned ourselves in past editorials – and to Kulhavi – that this whole plan could work perfectly, considering the university is embarking on the Education Building project.

After all, the reasoning for this plan was based on making the UC more student-friendly. It’s kind of hard to do that when you’re bowling a strike right next to the dean’s office.

But renovating Ronan opens doors for all the UC administrative offices to move there, giving way to a lot more space in the UC.

All in all, this is a great plan. Yes, it’s going to cost some money – at least $8.3 million, actually.

The reward is far greater than the risk in this case. Once the Education Building opens in 2009, and Ronan is renovated a year or so after that, CMU will have one of the finer campuses in the country entering the next decade.

With the Education and Health Professions buildings, new residence halls, nearly new towers and these renovated buildings, not to mention a possible Rose Arena redux in the future, attracting students to CMU will be easy.

Eight million sounds like a lot.

But attracting students who would have chosen Eastern or Western is worth it.

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