Although the construction of the Tom Benson Jesuit Center has been temporarily halted, members of the Office of Mission and Ministry believe that the addition to Loyola’s campus will enhance the university’s Jesuit identity.

The university is making the decision to renovate or rebuild the building that will house the new Jesuit Center in the upcoming weeks. The Tom Benson Jesuit Center, which will be housed in the space currently occupied by the old campus library, will contain a chapel as well as the offices for members of Loyola’s Mission and Ministry department. The building also has the space to house meeting rooms for community agencies that work with Loyola’s Service Learning department, which would eliminate the burden of travel for several student volunteers.

The Rev. Kevin Wildes S.J., president of Loyola University, believes that the new Jesuit Center will be beneficial in multiple ways to the Loyola community.

“I think that the Benson Center gives us an opportunity to create excellent space for the work of Mission and Ministry and to create good chapel space within the building,” Wildes said in an email.

Kurt Bindewald, the director of University Ministry, hopes that as students pass through the new building on their way to class, they will be reminded of Loyola’s Jesuit values.

“One of the things we like about the location of it is that since so much of the classroom activity takes place in Monroe and you see how the traffic happens right now, we’re going to be intentional about designing the building to where people have to pass through to get to Monroe or to get to the other academic areas on campus,” Bindewald said.

Laura Alexander, the assistant director of University Ministry, said that meeting space will be available for the university’s community partners.

“I think it will be a great location for community building and then also for community outreach,” Alexander said.

For Loyola, the decision to use the old library as the space for the new Jesuit Center has been met with problems. According to Bindewald, the right side of the building hosts four short floors which used to house the library’s stacks. These stacks would have to be removed in order to convert that side of the building into office and meeting space.

If the decision is made to tear the building down and rebuild on the space, Bindewald said that there will be an attempt to salvage many of the architectural features of the old library.

If the building is remodeled instead, many renovations will still need to be completed, including new energy-efficient windows and the replacement of the stacks with support beams.

The university is still waiting for the final quotes from the architects, but Wildes is expected to announce his decision to the Loyola community in December.

Shelby Schultheis can be reached at [email protected]