Although Newing College’s current buildings will be demolished and replaced over the next few years, Binghamton University is taking measures to preserve the community in the form of collectible memorabilia.

The salvaged items, including mailbox covers, white brass window latches and maple banister railings, will be recycled from the former buildings and be sold to raise money for programs in the new communities.

The idea to collect these items initially developed from the concerns of BU alumni who heard of the construction and requested to receive tokens of their experiences at the University.

“[It] set something off for me,” said Edgar Levy, an ‘84 graduate of BU and three-year resident of Newing College. “It’s a great opportunity to help remember the place by having a piece of it.”

In a letter to Binghamton University Magazine, Levy suggested the University save some parts from the old buildings.

“I wonder if it would be possible to salvage some sentimental parts of those old dorms that meant so much to so many alumni over the years and help raise some needed funds to the University,” he wrote. “A door knob, a room number plate, a way-finding sign or even a light fixture circa 1963 may have little to no salvage value, yet may be of tremendous value to some of us looking for a way to stay connected across the miles.”

After Levy’s suggestion and Bingham Hall alumni support of this idea, meetings were arranged through Student Life to consider what objects would be kept according to interest.

“There is a strong bond with the students with their residential community,” said Terry Webb, assistant vice president for Student Life and one of the members of the team who worked to collect the memorabilia. “They just wanted a little piece of the old building as a remembrance of it.”

Originally, bricks were considered to be good memorabilia items, but they did not meet the Environmental Protection Agency standards due to traces of asbestos on their undersides.

According to Webb, students and alumni have made suggestions to Student Life to turn parts of the old building’s structure into usable items, such as cutting up the maple banisters into business card holders.

The items salvaged will be made available for purchase and the money raised will be used to improve Newing College, Webb said.

According to Webb, further projects to commemorate the old community are also in the works, including recycling pulled up trees around the community and using the wood to build furniture within the new Collegiate Center, Newing and Dickinson’s future shared dining hall.

An old phone booth from Broome Hall has also been cleaned and painted and now resides in front of the Residential Life office. It will become part of the Collegiate Center once it is built.

“It [the phone booth] was a big part of the alumni experience,” Webb said.

She added that by giving it a place in the collegiate center, it will stand as a reminder to its former function.

The project is not about the destruction of the old but, Webb said, “trying to see what we can carry forward.”