The wooden staircase of Morrill Hall, once climbed by thousands of alumni feet, now only supports bits of debris.Although many of those who spent time in Morrill Hall over the past 110 years have since left Iowa State, their memories of the building remain as if they were students only yesterday.Visions magazine, a quarterly publication of the ISU Alumni Association, printed a small article on Morrill Hall in its March/April 2000 issue, which triggered a strong response from ISU faculty, alumni and friends. The 250 responses received by Visions to date have been posted and are available, un-edited, on the ISU Alumni Association Web site at www.isualum.org/news_views/.A large percentage of the respondents said they would like to see the building restored.Nick Howell, agriculture specialist at Reiman Gardens and a 1985 graduate of Iowa State’s horticulture department, said he is a “firm believer in restoration.””Morrill Hall is historically significant to the ISU campus,” he said. “It is truly architecturally unique and should be preserved.”Howell said he remembers watching the Veishea pa-rade from the roof of Morrill Hall.While the interest in a restoration project has piqued among alumni, the issue of funding remains a key component in the future of Morrill Hall.”We are as excited about the project as many alumni and friends,” said Tom Mitchell, ISU Foundation president. “It is not a question of excitability, it is a question of fundability.”Although the aging hall has been considered for funding by the foundation before, no donors have come forward, he said.”The foundation has included the renovations of Morrill Hall in previous campaigns,” Mitchell said. “However, we have not received a leadership gift commitment. For a project of this magnitude, we need to secure significant gifts made early in order to assure the success of the project.”Mitchell said a leadership gift would be equivalent to one-third or one-half of the total project cost. He said these gifts need to be in the form of cash, payable over a three- to four-year period.The renovation, estimated at $8.3 million, would require a leadership gift between $3 million and $4 million, Mitchell said.Dean Gisvold, a 1963 ISU graduate in distributive studies, responded to the Visions article and said he sees Morrill Hall as an excellent example of the need for campus preservation.”Morrill Hall is a piece of the past that needs to be preserved in order to provide future students with an idea of what ISU and its history was all about,” said Gisvold, an attorney from Portland, Ore.Alumna Eleanor Johns, a 1951 alumna of the chemistry program, worked on the first floor of the hall in the publications-art office as an ISU student. She said her mother also worked in the building before she was married.”Morrill Hall is beautiful and so different from anything else on campus,” said Johns, technical artist for Dayton’s Department Store. “There is nothing monotonous about the building. It deserves to be saved.”