COGS was approved to plan for the renovation at last month’s MSU Board of Trustees meeting. Stefan Fletcher, the president of COGS, said he hopes trustees will approve the total renovation within the next academic year. He said plans for the building, estimated to cost about $6 million to renovate, will begin this fall.

“Sooner rather than later, we’re going to start getting into the building to see its physical condition and see what work needs to be done to make the place into its optimal condition for use,” Fletcher said.

With many large public universities creating designated areas for its graduate students, Fletcher said it makes sense for MSU to have its own. Once renovated, Chittenden Hall would include an outlet for teaching assistants, as well as a graduate student wellness center.

“If you look around at other major residential institutions, their graduate school has a distinct building, a prominent symbol of graduate education,” Fletcher said.

Chittenden Hall was built in 1901, making it one of the oldest buildings on campus. It was the first on-campus building designed for dairy operations, and when the dairy program was relocated, it then was used by the Department of Forestry from 1913-1966. It was renamed Chittenden Hall in 1969, after MSU forestry professor Alfred K. Chittenden.

Dionisia Quiroga, COGS’s Vice President for External Affairs, said the facility not only will serve current students, but attract the attention of prospective ones.

“It’s important that we strengthen our programs that will nurture our students here, and also to better recruit future candidates so that we can progress the excellence of our programs,” she said.

After working to secure the building since 2010, MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said the hard work has begun to pay off for COGS.

“This is something the graduate students have been very passionate about,” Simon said in a previous interview. “It’s been on the list for a very long time.”