“It’s not a long-term facility,” said Fred Poston, MSU’s vice president for finance and operations. “We cannot continue in the facility we have currently.”

The $36 million plan to replace the hall will result in the destruction of the building, but it hasn’t been decided if another building will take its place. Faculty could be relocated to other buildings on campus or a replacement facility could be built. Four potential sites are being considered for the relocation: the current Morrill Hall location, near Bessey Hall, near Wells Hall and near the Power Plant on Shaw Lane.

Morrill Hall is named after Justin Morrill, a Vermont senator who helped pass the Morrill Act in Congress in 1862. The act appropriated land for agricultural colleges across the country.

While much of the MSU community agrees the building needs to be replaced, there is concern the building’s history will be lost in the transition to a new location.

“I think we’ve got to be very careful — we’ve got a lot of tradition,” MSU Trustee George Perles said of the building. “We’ve got to make sure we replace the new facility with all the sentimental and emotional things that are in it right now.”

Stephen Arch, chairperson of the English department, said while recent problems have made the building’s staff more agreeable to a new facility, everyone agrees the Morrill tradition needs to be maintained.

“Our hope is that there will be a Morrill Hall of some kind, a new one,” he said. “That is one of our concerns, given that we’re a land-grant university.”

Trustee Colleen McNamara said plans to replace Morrill Hall have been discussed for a number of years within the MSU community and that the decision to begin the replacement is bittersweet.

“As much as all of us feel particularly about Circle Drive and the buildings there and how important they are to be maintained, I think it’s really come to the point where we realize Morrill Hall has got to be taken down,” McNamara said.