With a little more than a month until renovations start on the Old University Union, Binghamton University administrators are still searching for a solution to the inevitable cut in programming space.

The Old Union is slated to be offline for a full year, leaving student groups and event planners scrambling for locations to hold their events. The renovations will hit areas that hosted a total of more than 500 events last year.

Binghamton University Union Events Relocation Committee, an ad hoc task force, has generated a report that lists solutions to mediate the space cramp. A body that includes mostly high-ranking University officials will likely make final decisions based on these recommendations within a week.

“There’s not much space on the campus when you take all of the space out of the Union,” said James Koval, director of the University Union Office.

Koval, one of 10 committee members who were appointed by vice presidents of the University and include representatives from a variety of campus departments, worked for several months last semester. He met weekly to research and discuss possible solutions to the space shortfall. The final draft of the report was submitted last week.

Vice President for Administration James Van Voorst was the first to receive the report. Van Voorst hopes to present the report to the Space Management Council within a week.

The council makes decisions regarding the use of space on campus. It includes the vice presidents of the University, the vice-provost for Budget and Strategic Planning and the Head of Facilities.

“They’re the people who can make the decisions to make it work,” Van Voorst said.

A final decision from the Council regarding what task force advice to follow is expected to come shortly after the presentation.

As its most simple solution, the report suggests that programmers consider a one-year hiatus for events, although it acknowledges that this is not possible in many cases.

Much of the task force’s time was spent exploring ways to use existing space more efficiently. The report recommends hosting evening events in dining halls after dinner ends, dedicating portions of the East and West Gyms to event programming and making better use of classroom space. It also suggests shutting down the Susquehanna Room to clear space for events.

The University’s system for reserving space on campus needs to be updated, the report suggests. Many usable spaces are not included in the database that Koval’s office manages and as a result are underutilized.

“The scheduling system works fine with student groups and everybody, but people don’t have their rooms online, and that was our concern,” Koval said.

One of the more radical suggestions is the idea of constructing a “bubble” over the East Gym tennis courts, enclosing them and creating a new space. Van Voorst is skeptical about this proposal as a short-term solution.

“I doubt we’re going to build a bubble structure by May,” he said. “But, maybe longer term that’s something to talk about.”

The report argued that moving events off campus would diminish student attendance to events and raise costs.

“It’s important to keep as many programs on campus as possible because we know that students will be more willing to go to things that are close to them,” said Joe Danko, the executive vice president of the Student Association and the only student member of the task force.

But Koval said he believes that keeping all events on campus is “an impossible task because there is no space of that magnitude on campus.”

The Space Management Council’s final decisions will be made based on the “reasonableness” of the proposed solutions, Van Voorst said.

“You really need to have people come together with the best intents in mind to make the best use of space,” he said.

Frequently used spaces that will be unavailable due to the construction include the Tillman Lobby, the Old Union Hall, the Mandela Room, the East and West Lounges and Room 221B, as well as smaller areas.

The area also encompasses the bus stop, a topic the task force did not address. Van Voorst said that alternatives are still under consideration.

The construction is scheduled to finish in August 2009 and includes substantial changes to the Old Union. Among the changes: asbestos will be stripped from the floors, a sprinkler system will be added upstairs, a number of rooms including the bowling alley and the East and West lounges will be remodeled, and the South Lounge will be expanded outward to include a new designated bus stop.

Danko warned students to be patient with the inconvenience caused by the construction.

“People next year will have to realize that everybody is going to have to share the burden a little bit and things won’t be as easily run as they usually are,” he said.