Kathy Box is happy to be upstairs.

Ascending from the basement of Hamilton Hall that doesn’t have many windows, Box, an administrative specialist for the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, is glad to see sunlight.

“It is way better than the basement,” Box said.

Faculty, staff and students of the Greenlee School were displaced from the main floor to other sections of the building for first floor renovations that began in the summer of 2002.

“We have extra [furniture] parts of one thing and not enough for the other,” Box said.

Although the Hamilton Hall renovation is not yet complete, faculty were able to move into their offices just weeks before classes start.

“We may be a desk or two short, but they’ve been experts at putting everything together,” Box said.

Hamilton Hall is just one of multiple construction projects currently taking place on campus.

The Gerdin Business Building is under constructed and will eventually house the College of Business. It is expected to be completed by the end of the fall semester, said Dean McCormick, assistant director of construction services for Facilities Planning and Management.

“We’re coming up on a [construction] period that rivals any other year,” McCormick said.

More than $60 million was spent in the 2003 fiscal year, which ended in June. McCormick said the total was a slight increase from last year.

“I’m almost afraid to say it, but we’re all on schedule,” McCormick said.

The majority of projects are renovation and many maintenance clean-ups, he said. McCormick said the bigger projects, such as the Bergstrom Training Facility located next to Jack Trice Stadium, get more attention.

The training facility, an $8.72 million complex, is expected to be finished in early November.

In the last ten years, McCormick said there has been less construction on campus than there currently is. Many of the construction projects were planned years in advance, he said, which helped them skirt budget cuts.

“It will be difficult for the casual observer to see the change in construction,” McCormick said.

Budget cuts could affect new construction in years down the road, he said.

The development on campus was kept to a minimum, McCormick said, to limit the effects on new students.

“We always try to make sure we do our best to not have any impact with students,” he said, “[So it does] not to add to any existing confusion.”

Despite a few missed deadlines, Kathy Box has survived the transition.

“I think people will come in and go ‘Wow,’ it’s such a big change,” she said.

The new main floor of Hamilton Hall will provide study, work space, and a place to relax, Box said.

“We fought to get soft leather chairs, and we got them,” she said.

— Daily staff reports contributed to this article.