There soon will be a new hangout on campus thanks to the graduating class of 1999.

As part of the class gift, seniors will be funding renovations for Lake LaVerne “to make it more of a social hangout,” said Senior Class Council President Jennifer Smith.

“The vote was overwhelming,” said Smith, senior in agricultural business.

Seniors cast their votes last semester on the senior class gift.

The other three choices that students considered were a new study area in the 1923 addition west of the periodical room at Parks Library, new bike racks east of Carver Hall and the improvement of campus lighting.

Council member Lee Dahlhauser, senior in mechanical engineering, said the renovations at the lake will include an 18-by-35 foot brick plaza, complete with benches and several trees at the northeast corner of the lake.

“The exact dollar amount for the project hasn’t been figured,” Dahlhauser said, “because we’re not sure how much money we’re going to be able to raise from the class and how much [Government of the Student Body] is going to give us.”

Dahlhauser said Senior Class Council members will be calling on graduating seniors asking for donations in the upcoming weeks.

They will begin calling seniors who are active in campus organizations, asking for gifts of $200. They then will call all seniors, asking for donations from $25 on up.

“We’re going to try to raise $60,000 from the senior class,” Dahlhauser said. “There will be a plaque on a boulder in the plaza that will list those classes who donated.”

Funds from the classes of 1980, 1988 and 1995 also will be put toward the project, he said.

The class of 1998’s gift was the restoration of The Fountain of the Four Seasons. With the help of the classes of 1946, 1947 and 1948, they were able to restore the fountain as an Iowa State landmark.

Graduating classes have given gifts to ISU for more than 100 years. This tradition has bestowed gifts such as the grandfather clock in the Memorial Union, artwork across campus and funds for a student area near the Student Health Center.