Vennie Gore, vice president for auxiliary enterprises at RHS, said the budget for the renovation hovers at $20,600,000.

The project has a time span of nine months and will officially start in May. Some prep work was completed in December.

“We started wanting to update the life safety systems in Akers — plumbing, fire sprinklers, etc.,” Gore said. “Since we will already be there updating the building, we will be doing the dining hall as part of the upgrade.”

Infrastructure Planning and Facilities, or IPF, also will be working on their fair share of projects throughout campus. Construction is underway in Chittenden Hall, the home of MSU’s Graduate School and one of the oldest buildings on campus, which has been vacant since 1999. The administration plans on centralizing graduate student services in Chittenden Hall to resemble the neighborhood systems set up for undergraduates. Completion of the renovations is expected in October.

“The entire staff of the Graduate School is looking forward to better serving graduate and graduate-professional students, as well as the faculty, in support of high quality graduate education at MSU,” Graduate School Dean Karen Klomparens said in a statement, released on October 25, 2013.

“The year 2014 also coincides with the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Graduate School in its current organizational form,” Klomparens said. “We are planning a year of events to focus on MSU graduate education, including the fall opening of Chittenden Hall.”

Another major project in the works is the dramatic renovation of Munn Ice Arena, which soon will have a new main front entrance to the building, new heating and cooling systems and will entail the complete replacement of the arena’s ice making system. Completion is expected in August and the preliminary budget is set at $6,500,000.

Less extensive renovations are in the planning stages for the MSU Clinical Center. The Clinical Center will receive new temperature control systems designed to maintain proper humidity and conditions for research and medical work.

Funding for the updates is coming from the specialized space fund, operating funds and a grant from the National Institute of Health, for a total projected budget of $8,500,000.

Parking Lot 97 will be expanded to accommodate the expected usage with the construction of a new Bio Engineering facility, is currently in the planning and design phase. The budget for the project is expected to fall below $1 million, with funding coming from money collected from other parking services on campus.

Currently all spaces in Lot 97 are for faculty, but that may change to accommodate graduate students once the construction is complete, said Dave Wilber, design representative for the project.