The doors of NIU's Cole Hall have been closed for almost two years. But that won't always be the case after an emotional press conference about the future of this tragic site.
"When your son or daughter graduates from a great school they put so much of their heart into it, and that's what we need to do with this project, put our heart into it, so those students who gave their lives for us will always be proud of us," said Governor Pat Quinn.
Governor Pat Quinn announced the state is releasing more than ten-million dollars to help bring students back to Cole Hall; which houses two of the university's largest auditoriums. One would be updated to be reopened as a classroom, and the other, where the shooting took place will be partially used as a memorial.
"That classroom will never again be used as a classroom, it will be used in a number of ways, I think the students that lost their lives there and the students that were there that day would like that to take place," Quinn said.

Before the shooting the building was a part of every day student life, President John Peters says almost everyone who attends NIU has probably spent at least one class in the lecture hall, now with the plan it will be open to students again.

The students you see standing behind Quinn were shot in Valentine's Day attack. They say seeing the building open to students again will help the university heal, and reminds them of a time before the shooting.
"Before the shooting you go to Cole hall and it was just a run down lecture hall with plastic seats, not very comfortable honestly but it was still a classroom and you knew it, and it was like any other day," said Harold Ng, a student shot in Cole Hall.

Another part of the plan is to update the Stevens Building just yards away from Cole hall. It will gain a theater and new auditorium classroom to make up for the space lost in closing one of Cole's lecture halls.

If state funding remains timely, crews could begin work on Cole Hall late this summer, with plans to open the lecture hall in time for fall semester next year. Right now the university still doesn't have a timeline for when the lecture hall where the actual shooting took place will open because they are still deciding on what they want to do with it.