Bowling Green State University is getting a makeover.
The university’s Board of Trustees Friday approved spending about $60 million on a variety of
construction projects from state-of-the art classrooms to a new parking lot.
The projects include converting what is now the second floor of the University Bookstore into a new home
for the Career Center and Student Employment Services and the final approval for the construction of the
Greek village that will replace all fraternity and sorority housing on campus.
Trustee Megan Newlove, who chairs the Financial Affairs and Facilities Committee, said that the elements
included in the seven resolutions approved by the board had been discussed for many years.
She said it was good to see them come to fruition and that the work will touch the lives of many
students.
The projects approved have a total cost of $67 million, but some money had already been appropriated,
said Sheri Stoll, vice president of finance and administration.
The projects are:
•     Construction of Greek Housing, $33.2 million to build 10 structures each with three or four
connected units. The 33 units will contain a total of 426 beds.
•    Construction of new electrical, heating and cooling services, and other infrastructure including a
new chiller plant in a renovated Centrex Building, $13 million. The project will provide updated
services for a number of older buildings including the renovated Traditions buildings as well as a
planned new College of Business Administration.
•    Renovation of the bookstore and relocation of the Career Center, $2 million.
•    Renovation of Eppler Hall, $1 million, to make room for the School of Family and Consumer Sciences.

•    Renovation of the Park Avenue Warehouse on the north end of campus for a home for the new Department
of Architecture and Environmental Design, $4 million. The project will enable the department to meet its
accreditation requirements.
•    Improve classrooms in Education, Olscamp. Math Science, Business and Eppler, $4 million.
•    Parking and road improvements, including the construction of a new parking lot on the site formerly
occupied by the sororities to serve the student union and upgrading Alumni Drive, $2 million.
While the amount being spent is large, Stoll said that much of the work will save money in the long run
by improving the energy efficiency of the campus.
Also, as new spaces are improved and renovated, old buildings will come down, leaving the university with
fewer buildings to heat, cool and maintain.
"No doubt there will be tremendous energy savings," Stoll said.
The changes in the University Bookstore represent a shift in the way textbooks are sold. Much of the
business is now online, and in many cases students rent books rather than buy them.
It makes sense, she said, not to have so many textbooks in stock for so long.
Also, the bookstore will gain space on the first floor when the large staircase in the middle of the
store is removed. "It’s not as big a loss as it’d initially seem," she said.
As to the future of the bookstore, Stoll said, that was still being considered. "We’re still trying
to figure out what can make the best financial sense."