Fine arts offices will be kicking out Lawson Hall residents on the first two floors this summer for temporary space during the three-year construction of the new Doudna Fine Arts Center.

Along with Lawson Hall, temporary classes and offices will be structured in McAfee Gym, an undisclosed site off campus and the old IGA on Lincoln, where Booth West library is currently said Jeffrey Lynch, associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, said.

But he said all of the general education courses that are now held in the Doudna Fine Arts Center will remain available on campus in other buildings.

Although fine arts classes will be spread throughout four different locations for the next three years of construction, administrators are confident in the continuance of fine arts programs.

“I feel positive about it,” Jim Johnson, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, said. “(It’s) a high priority to maintain the quality of the programs.”

Of Lawson Hall’s eight residential floors, the second and third floors will be occupied by departmental offices of art, theater, music, faculty and administrators starting in the fall of 2002, Lynch said.

Lynch also said students involved in the fine arts program will benefit from living in Lawson Hall next year, because many administration and faculty offices will be in the same building.

“(It’s) the first tentative step to a residential college,” he said. “I keep thinking, let’s make lemonade out of this lemon.”

Once students have moved out of residence halls in May, the university will be turning the rooms and lounges of Lawson Hall into office space for the fall, Kelly Miller, assistant director of Student Housing, said.

Currently, students need a key to access all floors in Lawson Hall. From office hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, during the temporary location period, students and administrators will not need a key to access the elevator. But, after those hours a key will be needed to access those floors, Miller said.

For the time period that a security key will not be needed, Miller said the university will derive a system to ensure student’s safety, though that system has not been determined yet.

“For the students who live there, we’re going to do something to reassure them,” she said.

The decision to move fine arts offices into Lawson Hall was not affected by the new 24-hour visitation policy that is set to begin next fall.

“The conversation about 24-hour visitation was after the fine arts (decision),” Miller said.

Despite the increase in housing applications for next fall, the loss of two floors for student living will not affect space available for the expected rise in the number of students, Mark Hudson, director of Housing and Dining, said.

Housing applications have increased 31 percent for next fall, but because of extra space residence halls currently have, there will still be enough room for fine arts offices to occupy space in Lawson Hall, Hudson said.

“I’ll make sure it happens. That’s my job,” he said.

The former IGA on Lincoln Avenue, which Booth West is currently occupying, will become a temporary location for the “dirty arts,” Lynch said.

Art classes including sculpture and hands-on art work classes will be held in the Booth West location and a shuttle bus will be provided for transportation to and from class, Lynch said.

Lynch also said students who take “dirty art” classes next fall and through the construction period will have more classroom space for art projects than the current building offers now.

“Students will thrive in the old IGA,” he said.

The music department is slated to be moved into McAfee Gym where it will share space with physical education classes that were housed in McAfee before the Booth Library construction began, Lynch said.

Construction of the new Doudna Fine Arts Center will begin this fall and is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2005, a flexible date, Lynch said.

“In the life of a university, three years is just a blink of the eye,” Lynch said.