Whittenberger Auditorium renovation plans delayed

In the near future, attendees of the Whittenberger Auditorium will no longer have to deal with poor lighting, uncomfortable seats or duct-taped carpets.\nAfter hearing many complaints from student groups and conferences about the poor conditions of the Whittenberger Auditorium, faculty from the Indiana Memorial Union made plans to renovate the auditorium. \nLoren J. Rullman, the executive director of the IMU, said the auditorium was planned to be finished before the beginning of the 2006 fall semester. However, because of the uncertainty of the cost of the renovation and because of concern that the cost may go over the $350,000 budget, Rullman said the project may need to wait until next summer if the project happens to be over the budget.\n"We're trying to be as responsible as we can," he said.\nUnion Board president Bradley Allen said that the auditorium needs to be renovated, and he said he is a bit disappointed that the auditorium may not be restored by this fall.\n"We're trying to focus on the students' interests," he said. "We received a few complaints about the auditorium. They should invest money where they make money."\nRullman said that the $350,000 budget came from the IMU savings. He did not specify exactly where the savings came from, but he said that the project cannot go over the amount, and he is afraid it may.\nRullman said the reason to wait to restore the auditorium until the summer is to avoid disruption of those who use the auditorium during the year, and this way, they can make all renovations at once. He also said he wanted to make sure they would be able to afford the construction.\n"We did not want to disrupt the programs that the Union Board was planning," he said. "And it's hard to do half of a project."\nThom Simmons, the building manager of the IMU, was involved in designing the auditorium to a more suitable environment. He said the auditorium hasn't been restored since the early 1980s, and it's long overdue.\n"(The auditorium) is not a good reflection of the Indiana Memorial Union or Indiana University," he said. "We want to do it not because of the complaints, but because it needs to be improved."\nSimmons said that plans were to completely replace all the seats and add tablet arms so that the auditorium could be more suitable for a classroom. He said that plans were made to completely replace the lighting, replace the sound system and install sound absorption panels in the walls to lessen the echoes in the room. He also said that the carpet was to be replaced.\nSenior Atticus Westerfeld, a regular attendee of the events to the Whittenberger Auditorium, said he doesn't like staying in the auditorium because of its poor conditions and he wishes that the renovations would include more than what is planned.\n"The seats are so uncomfortable, and you can't see the bottom of the screen during the movies," he said. "I was hoping for a lot more. The stage needs to be raised."\nWesterfeld was Union Board president in 2005, and he said he also received complaints about the auditorium. \n"I have wanted them to renovate it for a long time," he said.