When the bricks of the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute fall in what will probably be late 2004, students won’t be able to measure the effects in costs or structural damage. According to a junior nursing major active in the institute, their programs and their community will pay the price.

With the plans for West Campus Building F in the works, and the construction most likely to commence upon the completion of G and H, Northeastern’s proposed $40 million project will leave members of the African American community homeless until the new building is complete.

Building F will stand on the sight of the current building which housed a laundry facility before 1969, and will allocate 15,000 sq. ft. to the institute to equal the space they currently have.

The new facility will include a seperate entrance for the institute, which Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance Larry Mucciolo feels is fair.

“The president wanted to maintain the quantity of the space but obviously the quality of the space they’re going to have is considerably better,” he said.

Students do not agree.

Since the plan was first proposed in 2001, students have taken an active interest in seeing that their current building remains standing.

“It’s so much more than you can write on paper, the feeling of it, the essence of it. Words can’t express it,” the AAI source said.

He said that the students led protests to fight the process, including filling Huntington Ave. 100 yards on both sides.

They sat on two committees designed by President Richard Freeland, the Student Advisory Committee and the New Home Committee, where students kept the president apprised of what was going on and how the community felt.

Co-chair of the New Home Committee Joseph Warren said that “The committee was formed by President Freeland two years ago to find ways to work closely with the administration to identify the needs of the building and to … come up with a plan that’s suitable and desired by the members of the institute community and the members of the African American Institute in general.”

While Warren said that “so far there has been nothing but cooperation and good will,” the AAI source said that the members of the institute have “abundant concerns.”

“Let’s say you spend your entire life building something and someone comes along and knocks it down,” he said. “How would you feel?”

He worried that with the destruction of the building, programs such as the Ujima Scholars which gives African American students who otherwise may not have had the opportunity to attend Northeastern the chance to excel and to graduate, may also taper off and disppear.

“There’s a period in whcih you tear down a building. Where do [these programs] go from there?” he said.

Sophomore business major Junior Gustave, a frequent visitor to the institute, said, “I totally think it’s wrong. A lot of minorities don’t have a place where they can express themselves fully. We can relax here.”

He said that it’s a place where students can come to socialize and to learn about their race.

“I come here a lot. If it was to be torn down, it would be like ripping my heart out,” he said.

Freshman communications major Georgia Dufresne said that “we’re just as important as everyone else on this campus.”

She said that being in the basement of another building is “not a characteristic we want to display.”

“We don’t want to be at the bottom of a pile,” she said.

The AAI student called Northeastern’s decision to tear down the building a decision of “money over matter.”

“Money is more important to Northeastern than the smaller things you may not be able to count,” he said.

While the plans for the building are pretty much in place, Mucciolo admitted that “this ain’t a done deal” until the board approves the multi-million dollar project for which Northeastern is yet to hold the funds.

However, he said that, “From where I sit, the issue is getting it to the point where it’s on the launching pads and we can fire the engines.”

Students will continue to protest, but with full class schedules, jobs and families, the AAI sources agreed that their main focus must be on graduation.

“If I don’t get out of here, if the fellas that really fought for this building don’t get out of here, than what’s left to fight?”